The Air Force is already at workpreparing for the expanding US mission in Afghanstan, said US Central Command air boss Lt. Gen. Gary North in a Thursday night meeting with reporters at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium. The Air Force is already “growing” some of the in-country aerial port facilities and has been pouring a lot of concrete to expand ramp space and aircraft parking areas at the Bagram and Kandahar air fields in Afghanistan. This is being done in anticipation of the 17,000-man expansion of the US military force this year. North said other preparations for the force expansion will include movement of Air Force engineers from Iraq to Afghanistan, construction of helicopter landing zones, and general USAF assistance in building the support and bed-down infrastructure needed to support the larger force.
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…
