US Central Command has freshly updated its airstrike damage assessments from Operation Inherent Resolve, showing a total of 5,547 targets hit in Iraq and Syria since August 2014, up from 5,314 less than a month ago. The heaviest hit targets continue to be “fighting positions,” with US and coalition aircraft hitting 1,096 positions as of March 31 (up from 1,003 as of March 18), followed by 762 “buildings” (up from 736 in the March 18 report). Aircraft is now broken out as a separate category, with 15 listed as struck as of March 31. Strikes on civilian vehicles with crew-mounted weapons, so-called “technical” and “miscellaneous vehicles,” continue to climb, with 479 technical vehicles struck as of March 31, up from 460, and 595 miscellaneous vehicles struck, up from 547. Coalition officials and US military leaders have repeatedly suggested the airstrikes are causing ISIS to change tactics, and eschew military formations for civilian vehicles and smaller groups.
As with previous stealth aircraft unveilings, the Air Force’s imagery of the F-47 Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter has been doctored to keep adversaries guessing about its true shaping and design philosophy.