US aircraft conducted a “show of force” flight over an ISIS position near the Syrian city of al Bab earlier this week, but didn’t drop any bombs because of insufficient ground intelligence and weather impacts. The US-led coalition recently pulled support advisers from the Turkish advance on the town because the country did not work with the coalition in planning to retake the city. However, the recent show of force flights signal a push to increase support to the Turkish advance. Coalition spokesman Air Force Col. John Dorrian said Wednesday that there are high level leadership and diplomatic discussions with Turkey to provide more support to this advance, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday it is expected to be finished “soon,” Reuters reported. “We supported with a show of force recently and there are ongoing discussions about the manner in which we’ll support in the future,” Dorrian said.
The Space Superiority Weapons Instructor Course looks a lot different today than it did 30 years ago—a reflection of the growing importance of space to joint operations and the elevation of what was then a small cadre within the Air Force to its own separate service.