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)
The Air Force demonstrated that it can operate the remotely-piloted MQ-9 Reaper in long-range flights in the Pacific using limited ground support gear and non-specialist ground personnel. The demonstration provided a boost for its agile combat employment concept, the service said Dec. 7. The deployment required only seven people and…