Highlighting coalition air operations May 12 in Southwest Asia, F-16s dropped 500-pound joint direct attack munitions onto improvised explosive devices located in a palm grove in Baghdad, Iraq, Air Forces Central announced May 13. Also in Baghdad, an MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle fired a Hellfire missile onto enemy munitions. Joint terminal attack controllers confirmed the success of these missions, AFCENT said. In Afghanistan, A-10s fired cannon rounds and dropped a general-purpose 500-pound bomb onto enemy combatants near Garmsir, and F-15Es struck enemy combatants in the same area with 500-pound JDAMs. A-10s dropped a general-purpose 500-pound bomb, a 500-pound laser-guided munition, and fired cannon rounds onto enemy positions in Lwara. Further, a B-1B Lancer attacked enemy fighting positions in Asadabad with one 500-pound JDAM and 2,000 JDAMs, according to AFCENT.
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.