Airmen and F-15E Strike Eagles of the 494th Fighter Squadron and Aircraft Maintenance Unit at RAF Lakenheath, England, returned home from a deployment to the US Central Command area of operations earlier this month. While deployed, the Panthers flew a total of 1,651 sorties and dropped more than 1,700 bombs targeting ISIS as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, according to a base release. The Strike Eagles returned home Oct. 9, with airmen following Oct. 14. In addition to the fighter squadron and airmen, pilots, special mission aviators, pararescumen, and combat rescue officers from the 56th and 57th Rescue Squadrons, along with maintainers from the 48th Maintenance Group at Lakenheath, also returned from a deployment in late September.
In the face of Chinese war plans to disrupt U.S. command-and-control networks in the event of a conflict, the Air Force needs to focus less on its “connect everything” efforts and prepare its combat aviators to fight without a constant connection to higher-ups, according to a new report from AFA’s…
