More than 400 airmen from the 335th Fighter Squadron, an F-15E unit, and the 4th Maintenance Group departed Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C., last week on a four-month combat rotation to Bagram AB, Afghanistan. From Bagram, they will provide close air support for coalition grounds forces in Afghanistan, which is about the size of Texas. These airmen relieved a contingent of airmen from Seymour Johnson’s 336th FS. An aircrew from the 336th FS recently flew a mission that eclipsed 8,000 combat flight hours for the Air Force’s F-15E fleet. (Seymour Johnson report)
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…