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 ...
More of those “Not-Boots-On-The-Ground” boots on the ground??
I wonder if Brian Williams is leading the rescue missions?
Don’t understand how we can have effective air strikes without forward air controllers on the ground or combat search and rescue ready to deploy.
It bothers me that a news story leads to a change for pilot rescue, it seems like they should have already been where they would be most effective.
MANPADS, thousands of them, now in trained ISIS hands all over Iraq, Syria and now Eastern Jordan.
What difference, at this point, does it make!
I’m beyond rage.
And SA-7s.
Leading from behind
SA-7’s can be demolished with coordination from FACP’s.
McCain is correct on this.
Jordan's king boxed Barry into a corner. He's gotta come out swinging or go down.
I was just yelling about SA-7s to gaijin because we both knew they’d show up soon, and here is the deployment to countervene them today. We have to setup a special rescue ops for weapons we distributed around that IS got.
Israeli AirMule for rescue and casualty evac --good even for urban LZ's. No aircrew, so risks are dramatically lowered.
I believe the US is now researching an analogue for their arsenal, but...the Israelis are far ahead, in this.
Too bad we don't have same-same. :(
Well, I guess thats better than John Kerry and James Taylor.
Did someone just say mission creep?
If helicopters are rotary wing aircraft constantly searching for places to crash (definition courtesy of my father, recipient of numerous air medals and survivor of a few chopper rough landings), the Osprey can find these places a lot faster.
About time....
You mean those SA-7’s from Benghazi that Obama ordered shipped to Turkey then ISIS of course...
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