South CarolinaPing
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Posted on 10/24/2009 8:20:45 PM PDT by Saije
For years, the F-16 Fighting Falcons at Sumter's Shaw Air Force Base have trained to search out and destroy enemy missile and anti-aircraft artillery sites.
"That's the big war," as Lt. Col. Ken Ekman, a Shaw squadron commander, put it recently.
Now, Ekman and his S.C.-based unit - the 79th Fighter Squadron - are here, fighting a small war where they may be called on to fly close-air support for a donkey train carrying election ballots to a mountain village.
***Instead of hunting down enemy missile sites, the pilots use the multi-million-dollar electronic gear aboard their planes to find bombs buried in a roadbed or enemy fighters hiding behind rocks.
They also are being given rules for combat designed - first and foremost - to spare the lives of Afghan civilians and win, if necessary, without firing a rocket or dropping a bomb.***
Observers say U.S. air power, which pounded the German and Japanese war machines into oblivion in World War II, does not have to be so overwhelmingly lethal to defeat the Taliban, bearded men armed with AK-47 assault rifles.
"You don't have to use the force, but the fact that you have the force gives you the effect you want," said Brig. Gen. Steve Kwast, commander of the 455th Expeditionary Air Wing, based at Bagram.
"We minimize the amount of force that has to come off that aircraft," said Kwast, an F-15 fighter pilot. "If we do use that force, it is precise, it is targeted at the forces that are trying to kill our warriors and ... it is proportional and limited to only what is needed in order to disengage and move on."
That means Shaw's F-16s may just "buzz" Taliban fighters at times, rather than bomb them.
(Excerpt) Read more at thestate.com ...
“That means Shaw’s F-16s may just “buzz” Taliban fighters at times, rather than bomb them.”
That will OBVIOUSLY have only the effect of encouraging the Taliban. LUNACY!
test
Lunacy. Sheer lunacy.
SC ping!
F-16 Ping.
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