At least one B-1B bomber equipped with a Sniper Advanced Targeting Pod left its home with the 34th Bomb Squadron at Ellsworth AFB, S.D., last week for a forward operating location in Southwest Asia, according to an Ellsworth photo release. It’s the first deployment of the Sniper pod on the B-1B, following an accelerated effort by Air Force Materiel Command and Air Combat Command developers and testers and contractors Lockheed Martin and Boeing to meet the No. 1 priority for the Combined Forces Air Component Commander. The Sniper pod has performed on fighters in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2005, receiving rave reviews for both its targeting capability and its usefulness in an intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance role.
The Air Force still needs more than 300 combat squadrons, but the biggest priority is not number of squadrons but capability, Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. said Sept. 22. He also suggested the records set by the Next Generation Air Dominance prototype likely have more to do…