Pacific Air Forces boss Gen. Howie Chandler on Nov. 10 relieved Col. Bryan Bearden of his duties as commander of the 8th Fighter Wing at Kunsan AB, South Korea. A Nov. 10 release cited the reason given by Chandler as “duty performance factors.” Bearden, who had led the Wolf Pack wing since May 2008, will receive a new assignment outside Korea, according to the release. Chandler has named Col. Jerry Harris, who has been serving as 13th Air Force director of operations at Hickam AB, Hawaii, to take command at Kunsan.
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…