As the new year approaches, airmen are active on missions worldwide. Let’s take a closer look:
The fight against the Islamic State group. The Air Force has taken the lead in the five-month-long battle against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, and that campaign will continue into 2015.
“It’s not over. It’s not going to be easy,” Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said earlier this month. “Our support from the air and now our support to [Iraq] in an advise-and-assist capacity and soon a training capacity will continue.”
As of Nov. 30, the combined coalition forces had flown 4,019 airstrikes, 1,622 intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance sorties and 1,292 airdrop sorties. The Air Force flew 60 percent of the airstrike missions and 90 percent of all other types of sorties, including more than 3,700 tanker sorties by Air Mobility Command airmen.
In addition to the refueling missions, AMC had delivered 9,200 tons of cargo and 2,200 passengers into and out of hostile environments in the fight against the Islamic State group, said Lt. Gen. Carlton Everhart II, commander of 18th Air Force at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois.
“Between Aug. 8 and Nov. 30 of 2014, we executed 11 airdrop missions, delivering 285 tons of supplies, and we flew approximately 400 airlift sorties transporting a little over 2,200 passengers and 18 million pounds of cargo — all in support of Inherent Resolve,” Everhart said.
“We’ve been huge in this fight,” Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said. “With all due respect for … the important debate about ‘the boots on ground,’ I’m grateful that we have so many fine boots in the air, and an awful lot of those boots are United States Air Force.”
The main mission for early 2015 is to continue to go after Islamic State group fighters by targeting “their ability to find sanctuaries, safe haven, their ability to sustain themselves,” Kirby said.
“Without a doubt, if our nation calls, we are there,” Everhart said.
Army Lt. Gen. James Terry, the commander of Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, said Dec. 18 that U.S. and coalition airstrikes are increasing following a request for more help from Iraqi leaders.
Iraqis plan operations alongside coalition representatives, who provide the air assets to provide support. As these operations increase, so will U.S. Air Force flights.
“When Iraqi Security Forces plan operations and conduct those operations, we plan to support them in terms of delivering those precision fires,” Terry said. “We’re very conscious of any collateral damage and civilian casualties. We’ve been very effective in delivering those fires. I think we’ve got it just about right. The key here is building capability in the Iraqi Security Forces, building an offensive mindset and we will continue to strike.”
There has been “significant progress” since the first airstrikes in August, and Islamic State group fighters have been put on the defensive, Terry said.
The mission has grown to include all Air Force bases in southwest Asia, including some aircraft in Jordan. The aircraft involved in airstrikes have largely been fighters, bombers and remotely piloted drones. In November, the Air Force sent its main close-air support aircraft, the A-10, to join the fight.
Airstrikes are being conducted without Air Force joint tactical air controllers on the ground, meaning officials are using intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft in the air, along with information from the Iraqi Security Forces, to conduct the airstrikes, Terry said.
More rotations of airmen and aircraft will make their way through the Middle East in 2015 to keep the fight going against the Islamic State, leaders said.
“We’ve been hitting hard those oil refineries; we’ve been attacking their sources of income … and training,” James said. “But we’ve got to all get our heads around the fact that we’re in this for the long ballgame. This is not a short ballgame.”
Air Advisory mission in Afghanistan continues. More than 250 U.S. airmen will train, advise and assist the Afghan air force through 2015 and beyond, the top officer in charge said.
The U.S. air adviser mission in Afghanistan — to build a professional, capable Afghan air force — won’t change in post-2014, said Brig. Gen. Michael Rothstein, commanding general of NATO Air Training Command-Afghanistan.
The Afghan air force currently has more than 100 military aircraft and more than 6,000 personnel, according to a fact sheet from the 438th Air Expeditionary Wing in Kabul.
The goal is to grow those numbers to 150 aircraft and more than 8,000 people by 2017.
“What they’re doing now is exactly the same thing they’ll be doing in 2015,” Rothstein said of the 271 U.S. air advisers and more than 300 contractors and coalition partners to remain in Afghanistan as part of the air advisory mission.
They are among the post-2014 force that could number more than 10,000.
The air advisers instruct Afghan airmen on everything from flying helicopters and loading cargo planes to using night vision goggles and building an air force budget, Rothstein said.
Senior U.S. airmen from a multitude of career fields will be needed to carry out the mission, he said. They’ll continue to train at the Air Advisor Academy at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, where they are schooled in language, culture and combat skills.
“I would say the Afghan air force is making great progress. Each year, each six months, they’re getting better and better,” Rothstein said. “They’re tracking in the right direction. Obviously, there are challenges ahead of them. It’s important we stay focused on this.”
Forward presence in Europe. The U.S. will continue a high op tempo in Europe — predominantly Eastern Europe — until Russia de-escalates its threats in Ukraine.
Events in 2014 — including the invasion and annexation of Crimea and the presumed shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine — kickstarted dozens of NATO and U.S. land, air and sea exercises in Russia’s nearest neighbors.
Many of the exercises were part of the Defense Department’s Operation Atlantic Resolve to demonstrate U.S. commitment to NATO allies and European partners.
Atlantic Resolve and other exercises will increase more than 60 percent in 2015, with U.S. Air Forces in Europe members involved in 115 exercises in Eastern Europe, Lt. Gen. Tom Jones, USAFE vice commander said.
“We’ve put about $1.1 million against those engagements,” Jones said in a Dec. 11 interview with Air Force Times.
The increase in exercises indicates “we’re going to have an increase in the numbers of everything,” Jones said. More assets, including airmen and aircraft, will continue to rotate from the U.S.
“All of those engagements will not be done by assigned forces to USAFE,” Jones said. “So we will be rotating in other support from airlift to air refueling and fighter support as we conduct these engagements.”
The Baltics, Poland, Romania and other Eastern European countries will see heightened rotations in addition to air policing missions “more likely to be done because of the situation,” he said.
“We’ll be going to Amari Air Base in Estonia to conduct some fighter training. We’ll be going into Romania as they acquire and prepare to acquire some F-16s that they had purchased from Portugal. We’ll be working with them on preparing for the reception of those fighters there,” he said.
Live fly exercises with NATO partners are planned, as well as exercise Anatolian Eagle with Turkey involving Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft.
“We rely completely upon our host nations’ acceptance and permissions to use those air fields where we are based to overfly their nations to get the logistical support that we need,” Jones said.
In Africa, Ebola and beyond. While some troops who deployed to West Africa in response to the Ebola outbreak are on their way home, U.S. Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa airmen will continue their work in support of the ebbing crisis — at least through early 2015.
Army Gen. David Rodriguez, chief of U.S. Africa Command, said this month the force level would probably peak around the month’s total of 2,900 troops.
That’s far fewer than the 4,000 military officials previously estimated.
But military and health officials have been careful not to declare victory over the unpredictable virus.
“We will continue to provide aircraft, we’ll continue to provide airmen, and we’ll continue to transport those military members … until we have decided there’s not going to be military involvement anymore,” said Jones, vice commander of USAFE-AFAFRICA.
Airmen have been integral in setting up expeditionary field hospitals and transporting hundreds of passengers and hundreds of tons of cargo, including fuel, food, water and medical supplies, Jones said. Airmen also established an air bridge into and out of Liberia.
“I see that mission enduring for awhile. The intensity I believe can and hopefully will come down, but I think we’re going to be doing it for some period of time,” Jones said.
Beyond the Ebola mission, U.S. airmen will take part in joint training exercises with African nations, respond to crises and combat violent extremism, the vice commander said.
In February, airmen from the U.S., Djibouti, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda will gather in Djibouti for the African Partnership Flight, a program that began in 2012 to bolster communication and connections among the nations.
The African Air Chief Symposium with similar goals will follow in the fall in Mauritania.
Changes for Pacific, Air Combat Command. Two of the Air Force’s biggest major commands have new leaders, and their work is expected to have global implications in 2015.
Gen. Lori Robinson became the service’s first woman to lead an Air Force component major command in October, at a time when U.S. aircraft in the Pacific have a growing role in the Korean peninsula and face increased tension with China over that country’s establishment of an air defense zone.
Robinson has said one of her major jobs as the new commander of Pacific Air Forces and the air component commander for U.S. Pacific Command is to focus on increasing communication with China and other countries in the region.
“It will be these relationships that will be instrumental in our international endeavors,” Robinson said at her change of command ceremony on Oct. 16 at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii.
Robinson traveled to China in November to talk about concerns over the air defense zone, and recent close encounters in the region.
“The dialogue is beginning,” Robinson told the Associated Press before the visit. “I think that’s very, very good for the region.”
Robinson took over PACAF from Gen. Hawk Carlisle, who has taken command of Air Combat Command and is tasked with leading a force still reeling from sequestration, while facing new combat in the Middle East.
“The demand for airpower will continue to rise,” Carlisle said at his change of command ceremony Nov. 4 at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia.
Kristin Davis, Brian Everstine and Oriana Pawlyk contributed to this report.
