An Alaska Air National Guard C-130 aircrew deployed to Bagram AB, Afghanistan, got a last minute mission change on Christmas Eve to airdrop food, water, and other supplies to 50 soldiers guarding and working on a Army helicopter that made an emergency landing near a forward operating base. As the pilots started engines, the navigator was loading the flight plan by hand but before he was done, the crew had to de-ice the aircraft for a third time—the weather was bad at Bagram. After a 40-minute flight, the aircrew contacted the soldiers and took stock of the wind. The aircrew couldn’t see the supply bundles after they left the Hercules but could hear “ecstatic” shouts over the radio. Over the past year, USAF aircrews from Bagram have airdropped more than four million pounds to 10th Mountain Division soldiers in Afghanistan.
DOD Strategy Paves New Path for Electronic Warfare
Oct. 29, 2020
The Pentagon on Oct. 29 released a strategy for military use of the electromagnetic spectrum that could ultimately spur the creation of a new combatant command to oversee those operations. The Defense Department has waged war via the electromagnetic spectrum for decades, using aircraft like the E/A-18G Growler and the…