USAF has been providing airmen to aid the Army with convoy and security work for some time and now the Air Force reports that last year it began providing other “in lieu of” forces to help the Army with medical evacuation operations from point of injury to a nearby medical facility. Three Air Force medics attended helicopter survival school, then in February deployed to Afghanistan, where two operate out of Kandahar Airfield and one is forward deployed with ground troops. The Air Force also has added a medevac mission to the 33rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron’s standard combat search and rescue duty. (Read more about the USAF medevac effort here.)
Amid NATO’s continued push to ramp up air defenses in Eastern Europe, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall swung by seven allied countries to boost relations last week, including those on Russia’s and Ukraine’s doorstep.