Over Iraq, Pilots Fly Into Action When Troops Call for Help -WP

[Rose Siding]

...Pilots now take their cues for missions not from Air Force strategists but from Army and Marine commanders who daily submit requests for where they think aircraft can help most in support of ground operations. Instead of taking to the air with a clear idea of what they will strike and when, the pilots now largely wait for something to happen -- an attack on U.S. forces, for instance, or the discovery of militants ensconced somewhere -- and then fly into action.

With the exception of large offensive ground operations, such as the assault on Fallujah last month, days can pass without a bomb being dropped. This has led to the use of U.S. combat aircraft in nontraditional ways.

Fighters, for instance, now often are employed as surveillance and reconnaissance platforms. Using video and infrared cameras on their airframes, they cruise above oil pipelines and power plants, scouting for evidence of attack damage or suspicious activity.
...
During the invasion of Iraq, the U.S. military ran air operations from more than a dozen bases in the Persian Gulf region. In the past year, it has stopped using more than half of those and sought to consolidate at what Buchanan called several "enduring" bases, including Al Dhafra in the United Arab Emirates, Ali Al Salem in Kuwait and Al Udeid here.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10783-2004Dec18.html

[pretzel4gore]

1. must be nice

having empty skies to buzz around in, and facing only an secretly organized and scattered enemy....

[bemildred]

2. Pounding nails with a sledgehammer. nt

[daleo]

3. A small scale Iraq version of Operation Looking Glass

"After 29 years, Strategic Air Command (SAC) ends Operation Looking Glass on 24 July 1990. The mission began on 3 February 1961 and took the nickname Looking Glass because it mirrored ground-based command, control, and communications. From that date, a Looking Glass aircraft was in the air at all times 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for more than 29 years."

I wonder if it will last as long?

[Rose Siding]

4. Unless we run out of money

or fuel