The 2008 battle for Sadr City, Iraq, is the perfect model for successful urban warfare without imparting significant collateral damage, according to a new study by RAND Corp. By March 2008, a major battle was brewing in Baghdad and Sadrist militias had stepped up the number of rocket and mortar attacks against the Green Zone. The Pentagon was directed to stop the onslaught of rockets and defeat the criminal militias in Sadr City, located in the center of Baghdad’s Thawra district. The seamless integration of US airpower and boots on the ground proved to be the key to gaining control of the city and reducing the string of violence in the area, according to the report. (Read more at The Battle for Sadr City on airforce-magazine.com)
The KC-Z4, a blended wing body tanker concept being developed by startup JetZero, could fuel larger groups of aircraft at longer range to hold more targets at risk, company officials say.