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
Air Force Pitches Armed Overwatch Planes to Patrol Austere Regions, Police Africa Extremism
Members from Hurlburt Field, Fla., do final checks on their U-28A aircraft after landing Sept. 9, 2017, at Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark. (Jeremy McGuffin/U.S. Air Force)
17 Feb 2021
Air Force Special Operations Command s Armed Overwatch program will be very different from the service s failed pursuit of turboprop or armed reconnaissance jet aircraft, according to the top AFSOC commander.
Speaking to reporters during a Mitchell Institute event Tuesday, Lt. Gen. James Slife said AFSOC s goal is to look beyond aircraft with only one core mission. This is not a rehash of the Air Force light attack program, he said during the virtual discussion.
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Paul McLeary on February 17, 2021 at 2:07 PM
A Beechcraft AT-6 Wolverine conducts austere runway operations in 2020
WASHINGTON: Despite skepticism in Congress, Air Force Special Operations Command will launch a series of demonstration flights of it’s much-anticipated Armed Overwatch aircraft this year, hoping lawmakers see the value in a light, deadly airplane aimed at counterterrorism missions.
Several different aircraft will go through testing with an eye toward buying one of them in 2022, AFSOC commander Lt. Gen. James Slife said Tuesday.
“I think we can do that at relatively low risk, based on what we’ve seen from the vendors who have indicated that they intend to bring platforms to demonstrate for us in the coming months,” he said.
The DoD s own reporting on the issue notes that in a recent meeting with U.S. military leadership, Austin said that while the numbers of active-duty personnel involved in the insurrectionary actions at the Capitol may be small, any involvement by active-duty personnel is problematic. No matter what it (the number) is, it is … not an insignificant problem and has to be addressed, Kirby said during the informal session with reporters, according to the Department of Defense.
Kirby then went on to say that the vast majority of men and women who serve in uniform and the military are doing so with honor, integrity and character, and do not espouse the sorts of beliefs that lead to the kind of conduct that can be so detrimental to good order and discipline and in fact is criminal.