Air Combat Command in the “near future” will demonstrate the ability to rapidly deploy personnel recovery airmen and assets abroad, similar to its recently developed capability to rapidly deploy combat aircraft, ACC boss Gen. Hawk Carlisle said Monday at ASC15. ACC’s personnel recovery airmen are a “low density/high demand” community that has been constantly deployed to support operations in Central Command, Carlisle said. To respond to this need, ACC is developing a way to use mobility aircraft such as C-17s and C-5s to carry personnel recovery assets, such as HH-60G Pave Hawks, to a forward deployed base on short notice. The goal is to be able to forward deploy personnel recovery airmen in a matter of hours, not weeks, Carlisle said. The demonstration is based on the Rapid Raptor package, which was developed in 2013 in Pacific Air Forces, where a group of F-22s and a C-17 with equipment could forward deploy Raptors on short notice. This model was demonstrated in the Pacific, and just recently was used to deploy Raptors to Eastern Europe as part of a theater security package.
Improving Guam’s Defenses is Top Priority for INDOPACOM
March 4, 2021
Protecting Guam is the top priority for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, as the island territory and its large military presence has grown in strategic importance and the command is calling on Congress for billions more to build up its infrastructure there and across the region. INDOPACOM boss Adm. Philip S. Davidson,…