F-15Es struck enemy combatants and a weapons cache with 500-pound joint direct attack munitions and a 2,000-pound JDAM near Worzhanah Kalay, Afghanistan, on July 11, Air Forces Central said in a release. These strikes were part of the 65 close air support missions flown by coalition aircraft in the Near East nation on that day, An F-15E also dropped a 500-pound JDAM on enemy forces in the vicinity of Gereshk and A-10s fired cannon rounds at enemy units near Nangalam and hit them with general-purpose 500-pound bombs, AFCENT said. In Iraq there were 51 CAS missions, including a B-1B bomber attacking enemy bunkers in the vicinity of Baqubah with 2,000-pound JDAMs.
The defense intelligence community has tried three times in the past decade to build a “common intelligence picture”—a single data stream providing the information that commanders need to make decisions about the battlefield. The first two attempts failed. But officials say things are different today.