The withdrawal of about 700 U.S. forces from Somalia required a massive nocturnal airlift, movement of fighters and tankers from the Middle East, and other overwatch from drones and other special operations aircraft, all planned and executed within weeks. The mission, called Operation Octave Quartz, ...
U.S. Central Command
The Defense Department Office of Inspector General is ending its analysis of U.S. Central Command’s ability to protect key assets under its purview from missiles and drones due to COVID-19-related travel rules, it announced in a partially redacted memo published Feb. 11. The pandemic’s persistence ...
U.S. and Israeli troops are practicing ballistic missile defense and collaborative crisis response as part of exercise Juniper Falcon 2021, U.S. European Command told Air Force Magazine Feb. 10. Approximately 300 Defense Department representatives, including American Airmen, are taking part in the two-week-long exercise that ...
Airmen and C-130s from Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark., recently returned from a four-month deployment supporting combat operations in the Middle East and Africa. The Airmen and aircraft from the 41st Airlift Squadron, along with Airmen from the 19th Operations Group, 19th Aircraft Maintenance ...
A B-52 flew a long-range direct sortie from Barksdale Air Force Base, La., to the Middle East on Jan. 27, the third such flight this year and the first under the new Biden administration. The bomber from the 2nd Bomb Wing flew the “presence patrol” ...
Congress on Jan. 21 approved a waiver clearing the way for Lloyd Austin to be the next Defense Secretary, with a confirmation vote expected as early as the morning of Jan. 22. Austin, who retired from the Army in 2016 as the four-star commander of ...
The Pentagon has changed the combatant command responsible for operations involving Israel, from U.S. European Command to U.S. Central Command, following White House-brokered accords between the country and multiple Persian Gulf states. The update to the Unified Command Plan came as the Trump administration finished ...
Experts warned the Senate Armed Services Committee at a Jan. 12 hearing that approving a waiver for retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin to serve as Defense Secretary would damage the norm of civilian control of the military and cautioned against relying on veterans to lend ...
Two B-52s flew a direct, 36-hour round-trip flight from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., to the Persian Gulf this week in the latest of a series of task force missions to the region. The B-52Hs from the 5th Bomb Wing took off from Minot on ...
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley met with Taliban negotiators on Dec. 15, before moving on to Afghanistan to speak with local leaders regarding the ongoing and fragile peace process aimed at ending the 19-year-old war. The meeting marked the ...
Two B-52s flew directly to the Persian Gulf from Barksdale Air Force Base, La., in what the military says is a message of deterrence to Iran. The bombers, from the 2nd Bomb Wing, took off from their home base Dec. 9 and integrated with other ...
President-elect Joe Biden will nominate retired Army Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III to be his Defense Secretary, the transition team announced Dec. 8. Austin, who left the military in 2016 as the four-star head of U.S. Central Command, would be the first-ever Black man to ...