Air Mo
bility Command expected to deliver the 10,000th mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle to Southwest Asia yesterday. “Our Airmen are directly helping to keep our troops on the ground safer,” said Gen. Arthur Lichte, AMC commander. “I’m extremely proud of them and their efforts to speed the delivery of this lifesaving equipment to our forces.” MRAPs were first introduced in that combat theater in 2007; since then, AMC airmen have worked around the clock to transfer them there, using C-5s, C-17s, and contracted Russian AN-124s. The Air Force has carried nearly 3,000 of them, with the remainder going over on Navy ships. Charleston AFB, S.C., is the sole USAF base from which the vehicles are airlifted to theater. (Scott report by 1st Lt. Justin Brockhoff)
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…