About 1,400 US and foreign militar
y forces will descend upon Eielson and Elmendorf Air Force Bases for the April 16 to May 1 iteration of Red Flag-Alaska (RF-A). French units will join NATO and US forces in this Pacific Air Forces-directed training event that offers offensive counter-air, interdiction, close air support, and large force employment training, played out over the Joint Pacific Alaskan Range. (For more on RF-A, read Air Force Magazine’s Red Flag Over Alaska) Part of the RF-A mix will be USAF’s new F-22 Raptor, which, according to a new Popular Mechanics article, means the guys in the fourth-generation fighters “die wholesale.” The article zeroes in on airmen from the New York Air National Guard’s 174th Fighter Wing on their final deployment with the wing’s F-16 Vipers, this time in training at Nellis AFB, Nev. The unit shed its first two fighters last fall as it began the transition to an MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle mission. (Elmendorf report)
“Military history shows that the best defense is almost always a maneuvering offense supported by solid logistics. This was true for mechanized land warfare, air combat, and naval operations since World War II. It will also be true as the world veers closer to military conflict in space,” writes Aidan…