Operational tempo and personnel numbers remain the two biggest problems facing Air Force Special Operations Command, said CMSgt. Bill Turner, AFSOC command chief. “There is no relief in sight for ops temp,” said Turner Monday during AFA’s Air & Space Conference in National Harbor, Md., just outside Washington, D.C. Although Iraq is drawing down, air commandos will remain actively involved in Afghanistan and other parts of the world. The challenge will be getting more trained airmen on the ground to relieve the ops tempo on commandos who have deployed significantly over the last 10 years. The goal, he said, is getting the ops tempo away from one-to-one.
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.