Mobility airmen have helped to deliver approximately 20 million pounds of humanitarian aid to Pakistan, said Air Mobility Command and State Department officials last week. Their activities have been part of the US military’s response since July 29 to the devastating flooding that ravaged Pakistan. C-17 and C-130 relief flights concluded on Oct. 3 after more than 350 intratheater sorties. However, airmen from the 621st Contingency Response Wing at JB McGuire, N.J., continue to operate out of Pakistan Air Force Base Chaklala to assist with managing the distribution of the relief supplies. (Scott report by MSgt. Scott T. Sturkol) (State Department release)
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…