US and coalition officials formally end Operation Northern Watch, the US-Turkey-UK operation to enforce UN resolutions by patrolling the northern no-fly zone in Iraq. It began as Operation Provide Comfort shortly after the end of Gulf War I in 1991. ONW flew its last combat mission on March 17, 2003.
A new Air Force plan for how many fighters it needs in the next decade marks a sharp upturn from what it thought it needed just seven years ago. But analysts worry that the aspirational plan now in Congress' hands doesn’t make a tight enough connection to national strategy.
