US forces carried out a defensive strike against al-Shabaab fighters in Somalia earlier this week, killing three. The June 21 defensive fire came after it was determined the group was planning to attack US forces who are supporting Somalia’s government, according to a US Africa Command release. US aircraft have repeatedly struck al-Shabaab in recent months. In March, manned and unmanned aircraft struck a training camp inside Somalia, reportedly killing 150 fighters. A March 31 airstrike killed senior al-Shabaab leader Hassan Ali Dhoore. In May, US forces targeted Abdullahi Haji Da’ud, a senior military commander, but the Pentagon has not announced whether he died in the strike. (See also: Changing Tactics in Somalia.)
The Air Force is leaning toward a less-sophisticated autonomous aircraft in the second increment of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, the services chief futurist said. He also suggested that the next increment of CCA may be air-launched, a la the "Rapid Dragon" experiments conducted by the service in recent years.