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General foresees no shift to Afghanistan

Violence is down in Iraq and escalating in Afghanistan, but Air Force officials don’t expect to deploy more airmen or aircraft to Afghanistan or reduce the number in Iraq, said Lt. Gen. Gary North, U.S. Air Forces Central commander.

About 33,000 troops are stationed in Afghanistan including about 5,000 airmen — the highest numbers since the war began — in response to the recent resurgence of the Taliban in the southern and eastern portions of the country.

The increased attacks have resulted in the most deadly three-month period there for U.S. forces. From May to July, 65 troops died, pushing the total death toll in Afghanistan past 500.

Since January, the Air Force has been hitting back. During the first six months of 2008, Air Force planes dropped 1,853 bombs over Afghanistan — more than were dropped in all of 2006. Last month, they dropped 505 bombs over Afghanistan, while Air Force planes dropped only 29 bombs over Iraq.

However, North said, many of the bombers over Afghanistan do not take off from bases inside that country.

“What most people don’t understand is that, notwithstanding the units that are in Bagram, Kandahar and the airmen that are on the ground in Kabul and everywhere else, the large capacity of airmen’s input into the joint fight [in Afghanistan] comes from out of country,” he said.

Instead of basing more planes in Afghanistan, North said, he can adjust strategic aircraft like the B-1 bomber that had been flying over Iraq to instead fly missions into Afghanistan. “If I need more requirements [in Afghanistan], I just shift the assets in the daily air tasking order,” he said.

And those same planes could provide North with what he said he does need more of — intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets. He told Air Force Times he wants to take advantage of planes like the B-1, which now flies with targeting pods that collect full-motion video, similar to Predators and Reapers.

His staff is also making plans to bring on 37 C-12s the Air Force intends to purchase over the next two years as recommended by the ISR Task Force and approved by Congress on Aug. 7, North said. The C-12s will be equipped with sensor suites similar to the ones mounted on Predators.

Unmanned missions

North hinted Iraq and Afghan pilots might soon take over some ISR missions.

Iraqi pilots now fly Cessna 208s on ISR missions along the electric and oil lines, working with troops and security forces on the ground to protect those lines, North said. There are also plans to purchase SH-3 Sea King helicopters and install sensor suites so they can fly ISR missions, he said.

As the level of violence in Iraq continues to drop and the Iraqi military takes over more missions — not just ISR, but also some of the convoy and patrol missions some airmen were forced to assume — North said he wants to reduce the number of airmen currently serving “in lieu of” missions, as they’ve been called.

Right now, 5,000 airmen are serving in-lieu-of missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, or what the Air Force now calls Joint Sourcing Solution missions. But North wants that number to drop and to return the airmen to the Air Expeditionary Force Cycle on traditional missions.

“One of my goals while we look at the right-sizing of missions is to reduce the mission requirement for in-lieu-of positions and return them to traditional roles,” he said.