Air Force Special Operations Command deployed AC-130U gunships to South Korea for the first time in more than a decade to participate in live-fire close air support training with South Korean special operations forces. During Exercise Teak Knife, the South Korean special operators directed the two gunships as well as F-16s and A-10s from the 51st Fighter Wing at Osan Air Base against targets on the Pilsung Range complex. Additionally, members of Osan’s 51st Security Forces Squadron trained to direct air strikes in defense of Osan, should the base ever come under attack, according to Osan’s Sept. 20 release. Along with the gunships, some 100 US special operators and support personnel deployed for the exercise, which ran from Sept. 2 to Sept. 14. (Osan report by Capt. Cody Chiles)
USAF to Cut F-35 Buy in Future Years Defense Plan
May 14, 2021
The Air Force wants to scale back buys of the F-35 over the next five years, hoping to get sustainment costs down and to wait for the more capable Block 4 version, according to talking points prepared for Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. The reduced buy will…