A B-1B bomber dropped a 2,000-pound joint direct attack munition on enemy combatants in Maimana, Afghanistan, April 28, Air Forces Central said in an April 29 release. Coalition aircraft carried out a total of 26 close air support missions in Afghanistan on that day, including F-15Es taking out enemy positions in Nangalam with 2,000-pound JDAMs, and British Royal Air Force GR9 Harriers dropping enhanced paveway II bombs on enemy combatants in a building near Garmsir. In Iraq, coalition aircraft flew 50 CAS missions, AFCENT said.
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…