Air Combat Command has taken the logical step of transforming the tried-and-true, generate-and-fly-sorties operational readiness inspection into one that better matches the expeditionary Air Force. ACC officials say the ORI has evolved into practice for what airmen are facing today in Afghanistan and Iraq—everything from mortar, rocket, and chemical attacks to facing improvised explosive devices to the stress of enduring long work hours. The goal, says Col. Tom Jones, ACC inspector general, is to evaluate “wartime skills … before our airmen deploy.”
The attempt by Ukraine to hold the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk ended June 23 as the Biden administration announced another $450 million in military aid, including four additional HIMARS rocket systems, to help strike Russian artillery as unmanned aerial systems have grown ineffective against Russian air defenses. “Air defense is…