An Air Force B-1B bomber dropped 2,000-pound joint direct attack munitions onto enemy fighting positions in both Nangalam and Asadabad, Afghanistan, on April 27, and an A-10 Thunderbolt fired cannon rounds onto enemy combatants in Jalalabad, Air Force officials directing the air campaign from the combined air and space operations center in Southwest Asia said in an April 28 release. These strikes were among the 46 close-air-support missions flown by coalition air forces over Afghanistan that day. In Iraq, coalition forces executed 43 CAS missions April 27.
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.