Airmen 
and C-130Js from Ramstein AB, Germany, wrapped up a week-and-a-half of training and skills qualification with the Polish air force during Exercise Screaming Eagle IV at Powidz AB, Poland. “Poland provides an excellent place for our aircrews to increase proficiency on several different flying scenarios, as well as training opportunities for maintainers, aerial porters, and the airborne personnel we have here,” said Capt. Dean Brown, pilot with Ramstein’s 37th Airlift Squadron and an exercise planner. Ramstein survival specialists made high-altitude, low-opening, parachute jumps with Polish special forces, and aerial porters had the rare opportunity to practice night-vision-equipped loading operations, according to Ramstein’s Aug. 1 release. “At Ramstein, we cannot get the flightline completely dark, so the training we conduct here is more realistic,” added 435th Contingency Response Group instructor MSgt. Jeffery Platz. The annual exercise ran from July 24 to Aug. 3. (Powidz report by SrA. Aaron Wainwright)
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…