The 451st Expeditionary Group at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, inactivated two squadrons as part of its transition from a large unit involved in combat operations to a smaller organization supporting the mission of training, assisting, and advising Afghan forces, according to a unit release. The 451st Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron and 451st Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron stood down in ceremonies on May 3. “On this date in 2002, we established the 451st AEG to control the air over southern Afghanistan,” said Col. Rhude Cherry, 451st AEG commander, on May 3 “Over the course of time, we expanded to become a wing, and then last year back to being a group,” he added in the May 21 release. The group’s maintenance role now resides with the 62nd Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron, which operates MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft. The group’s logistics tasks realigned under the 451st Expeditionary Support Squadron, states the release.
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…