Mark A. Welsh USAF

MQ-9 Reapers used against Iran offer insights as the Air Force develops the next generation of unmanned planes: collaborative combat aircraft (CCA), retired Brig. Gen. Houston Cantwell and Douglas A. Birkey write.

The time is now to rebuild our northern tier defenses. Modern adversaries like Russia and China spent the past three decades developing and fielding advanced weapons capable of striking the U.S. homeland. Today, their advanced nuclear and nonnuclear missiles have...

If there is anything we’ve learned from the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel—and the growing threats from China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea—it is that massed air and missile attacks are now a fundamental component of modern warfare. This puts our U.S. homeland at risk. 

It was a reprise of the old "Fast FAC" concept--but they marked their targets with 500-pound bombs.