A 71-member team of airmen with the 5th Combat Communications Group, Robins AFB, Ga., flew into Manas AB, Kyrgyzstan, to await their call to set up communications capability for the Pakistan earthquake relief effort. These combat communications specialists—battlefield airmen—are trained to go into austere environments to set up air traffic control, radio, telephone, and computer capability. (Read our article here.) They came prepared to fan out in Pakistan in small teams of three to four people with backpack satellite radios and wireless computers to coordinate helicopter landings.
Unmanned aerial vehicles and autonomous aircraft may provide a solution to operating in heavily contested domains such as the Taiwan Straits, according to a panel of expert who suggested operationalizing artificial intelligence for such purposes sooner rather than later. The group gathered virtually to help launch the Mitchell Institute for…