It’s Still an Air War: Air Force and coalition strike aircraft remained busy in the skies over Afghanistan July 2, conducting 54 close-air-support mission overall, Air Forces Central said in a July 3 release. Among these activities, A-10s attacked anti-Afghan government forces near Bari Kowt with cannon rounds, rockets, and 500-pound general purpose bombs, AFCENT said. A B-1B bomber used a 2,000-pound joint direct attack munition and 500-pound JDAMs against an enemy position in the vicinity of Qalenaw. Further, F-15Es dropped a 2,000-pound JDAM and 500-pound JDAMs onto enemy fighting positions by Nagalam, and an MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle struck a cave in Gereshk with Hellfire missiles and a 500-pound laser-guided bomb. AFCENT said there were also 41 CAS missions in Iraq on July 2.
It'll take up to 18 months for Lockheed Martin to deliver the 100 or so F-35s that went directly from production line to storage, awaiting the completion of Tech Refresh 3 testing. Customers haven't complained about the order in which the backlog is being delivered.