There has not been a kinetic air strike in Iraq in at least six months and there’s not likely to be another one any time soon, Army Gen. Raymond Odierno, head of US Forces-Iraq, said Wednesday. “In 2007, we had to do [kinetic strikes] in order to get control, but now that we’ve gotten control back, we don’t need to use that kind of capability,” he told reporters during a Pentagon briefing. He added, “We don’t want to alienate people with collateral damage.” With the number of US troops in Iraq having gone down by 75,000 since January 2009, the focus of operations has shifted more to stability operations, he said. Still, airpower has many other uses there, Odierno said. “It’s great for reconnaissance and we use it for deterrence. It still plays a role, but one that’s much different,” he explained. (Odierno transcript)
Due to the prolonged delay in deliveries of the Tech Refresh 3 version of the F-35 fighter, Denmark is pulling six of its TR-2-configured F-35 jets stationed in the U.S. back to home base in order to consolidate aircraft and get better training for its pilots and maintainers, the Danish…