The 34th EBS BONEs deployed their largest amount of weapons on narcotics facilities since the squadron\u2019s reintroduction in the U.S. Air Forces Central Command\u2019s AOR in April.<\/p>\n
This mission was part of realigning airpower from Operation Inherent Resolve, to support increased activity in Afghanistan and bolster Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) capabilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cIncreased airpower supports a deliberate air campaign designed to degrade the Taliban\u2019s primary means of funding its operations \u2014 narcotics production,\u201d said Capt. Mark Olme, a 34th EBS pilot. \u201cThese strikes will mitigate the Taliban\u2019s ability to fund insurgent operations that kill innocent Afghan civilians and strengthen the ANDSF\u2019s ability to fight and win on the ground.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The ANDSF are now planning and calling their own strikes and successfully demonstrating the ability to integrate operations that enable battlefield successes. Together with U.S. airpower and advisors, they will continue to develop the critical war-fighting capabilities needed to help them in their task of defeating the Taliban and other threats.<\/p>\n
Since November, more than 75 strikes against narcotics processing and storage facilities and stockpiles have resulted in the loss of tens of millions of dollars for the Taliban. According to Frank Mercurio, 34th EBS chief of weapons and tactics, the intent is to go after the root of the problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to target their means of funding,\u201d Mercurio said. \u201cSo if we take out their narcotics factories, storage and production \u2014 we\u2019re basically rooting the Taliban from any money or funding they might have to then go and use against innocent Afghan civilians.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
According to Olme, there are several parties that work together to make missions like this possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe work together with the joint terminal attack controller, command and control network, tasking authorities and usually an air-refueling tanker,\u201d Olme said. \u201cThere are five or six entities all working in conjunction during missions like this.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The reputable B-1 \u2014 with its supersonic speed, long loiter time and massive payload \u2014 returned to the U. S. Central Command AOR in April to combat Taliban and other terrorist groups after two years of supporting the U. S. Pacific Command\u2019s AOR.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not in the Pacific anymore,\u201d Olme said. \u201cWe\u2019re back and we\u2019re making our presence known with the Taliban.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Good to see the BONEs back, and hitting them where it hurts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
U.S. Air Forces Central Command reports B-1B Lancer aircraft from the 34th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron (EBS) … 379th AEW bomber strikes Taliban drug facilities<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-air-force","category-terror-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79736\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Bone\"](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/bone_1-e1527695485470.jpg\")
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