France is deploying its only aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, to assist in the bombing campaign against ISIS. The carrier deployment is a “rational choice” to “allow us to be more efficient in coordination with our allies,” French President Francois Hollande said, according to the BBC. The carrier holds up to 40 aircraft and can support 100 flights per day, according to the report. US Central Command spokesman Air Force Col. Patrick Ryder said the command “appreciates the tremendous support” from France in this deployment. The country is responsible so far for 271 airstrikes in 1,285 aerial missions in Iraq, according to the BBC. This is the secon?d time the carrier has deployed to the fight this year. France also has deployed its fighter jets to conduct airstrikes in the operation from other bases in the region.
Special-ops aviators, a physicist from the intelligence community, and an enlisted Marine with decades of deployments: U.S. Space Command’s military and civilian leaders who spoke May 7 were as likely to come from strictly space backgrounds as not. These are some of the day’s insights from inside the command, which…