Posted on 02/05/2015 7:44:38 PM PST by george76
The US military has deployed aircraft and troops to northern Iraq to boost its ability to rescue downed coalition pilots, after a Jordanian airman was captured and killed by jihadists in Syria, a defense official said Thursday.
"We are repositioning some assets into northern Iraq," a US defense official told AFP.
The move is designed to shorten the response time needed to reach pilots who end up in territory held by the Islamic State group, officials said.
Search-and-rescue crews had been based in Kuwait, but officials said Wednesday the military was reviewing where its hardware and specialists were located following the loss of the Jordanian pilot.
The redeployment came as US aircraft on Thursday escorted Jordanian warplanes over Syria for dozens of retaliatory air strikes against the IS group.
American F-16 and F-22 jets provided security to Jordan's fighter planes on the strike mission while US refueling tankers and surveillance aircraft provided additional support, defense officials said.
The United Arab Emirates, fearing for the safety of its pilots, reportedly had raised concerns about search-and-rescue resources with the Americans, urging them to redeploy some V-22 tilt-rotor Osprey aircraft to northern Iraq.
US officials suggested the move of some search-and-rescue teams to northern Iraq would include helicopters but not necessarily Ospreys
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Active Duty ping.
This would be a long term set-up to eradicate. Unfortunately we have a CIC that can’t handle Cuba.
Yes, Rescue ops needs to be in place because taking out Surface to Air deployments takes quite a risk.
Forward Air Controllers can coordinate this action and begin with fast movers.
Go get ‘em Mickey!
We could drop Kerry and Taylor into an ISIS stronghold, and after a hug and a few strums, the terrorists would be the ones begging for rescue!
AWACS
These things are starting to look more and more like skynets “Hunter-killers” every day.
CC
Here is the rub: put planes in northern Iraq now you need ground crews. You put ground crews in Northern Iraq now you need housing, food, water, etc. You put all the support required for ground crews, ground crews don't shoot bad guys, now you have to provide security. You provide security it can't be half ass. Pretty soon you got a whole new airbase complete with all logistics required to support and supply several thousand “boots on the ground.”
‘Tis a sticky web we weave......
I understand, but the mission hasn’t changed, so why were they in the wrong place before this incident happened.
My point is that they have had to correct a previous mistake evidently.
I think the point is there is no mission. There is talk on tv. There is talk on radio. There is talk in halls of congress. There is talk even in white house on occasion.
But there is no defined mission....
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