The Future Of Air War Is Being Determined Over The Skies Of Syria Today

Four Falcons

Four Air Force F-16 Falcon aircraft taxi before taking off on a sortie during an aviation rotation at Krzesiny Air Base, Poland, Sept. 11, 2017. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Jonathan Snyder

Patrick Tucker, Defense One: Syria is a ‘Laboratory’ for the Air War of the Future

U.S. airmen are rapidly developing and remixing new technologies and techniques in the fight against ISIS, but sometimes you can’t beat the tried and true.

ISIS doesn’t have an Air Force, but the Syrian skies are nevertheless a rapidly evolving “laboratory” for air warfare, said U.S. military leaders, who described how the U.S. is fusing cyber attacks with real bombs and using open-source intelligence to find and strike targets.

Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, who leads U.S. Air Forces Central Command, described a “dynamic targeting tool” that lets analysts and airmen at al Udeid Air Base in Qatar send the latest targeting information to airborne pilots and ground-based commanders alike. “The tool pulls together everything from the intelligence background to show me all the data on that target. Where did that target generate, how many times have we looked at it? And how do we communicate that, ultimately.”

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WNU Editor: The focus and the experienced learned from the Syrian conflict will probably now be shifted to Afghanistan, where the ability to locate and target the enemy is sorely needed .... especially to stop this .... Taliban video documents takeover of district center in Kunar (Threat Matrix).