Thursday, February 18, 2021

U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command Wants A New Aircraft That Can Fly Reconnaissance Missions And Bomb Enemy Forces

PC-12 (Wikiwand

Defense One: New Plane Key to Special Ops Vision for Africa, General Says 

Air Force Special Operations Command is planning flight demonstrations in coming months. A new aircraft that can fly reconnaissance missions and bomb enemy forces is key to U.S. special forces’ future in Africa, the head of Air Force Special Operations Command said Tuesday. 

Lt. Gen. James Slife spoke as the Biden administration reviews the U.S. military’s global footprint and prepares to advise Congress on reorienting American forces for future conflicts. 

“I would suggest to you that if we want to maintain pressure on those violent extremist organizations that pose a threat to the United States — that pose a threat to the homeland — we may need to remain engaged in portions of Africa against very specific threats and not just broadly, anywhere where there's an extremist, but specifically where those that pose an external threat are,” Slife said Tuesday during a Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies Zoom event. 

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WNU Editor: It makes sense that (to me) that the US Air Force wants to field counterinsurgency aircraft that are cheaper to fly than high-performance fighter jets. What does not make sense is that the Congress is saying no.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Of course it makes sense but nothing we do here makes sense

B.Poster said...

There does seem to be some sensibility in this. After all a reconnaissance plane and a bomber have to do similar things such as fly high out of enemy range (hopefully) and locate targets. Must likeky the bomber payload is heavier making it problematic for it to achieve the altitude of reminiscence plane. Perhaps this explains why each are separate planes.

Combining these two just might work. Unfortunately what seems more likeky to happen is we end up with an inferior bomber and reconnaissance plane combined into one plane and trying to combine the two will cost likeky cost more money. See the "Jack of all trades" F-35. I think a better approach would be to build a top notch reconnaissance plane and a top notch bomber.

War News Updates Editor said...

You are probably right B. Poster