T
he Air Force has new associate plans in the works for Air Force Reserve Command that include flying F-15Es and flying and maintaining A-10s with their active duty counterparts. Reserve instructor pilots, instructor weapons systems officers, and administrative specialists will form a detachment to augment the Strike Eagle force of the 4th Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C. AFRC will establish two A-10 associate outfits. One at Moody AFB, Ga., AFRC will comprise a classic associate unit of some 215 airmen to fly and maintain the A-10s of the active duty 23rd Wing. The second will be a group of 14 Reservists working with the A-10 Formal Training Unit at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz.
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…