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Sunday, November 29, 2015

Boots on the Ground For A Little While

I've long assumed we have this type of capability to put boots on the ground in ISIL-held territory in Iraq or Syria if necessary:

Syrian special forces launched an operation "behind enemy lines" to rescue the surviving crew member of a Russian warplane downed by Turkey, Syria's Al-Watan newspaper reported on Thursday.

"Eleven members of an elite unit of the air force intelligence service and a (Russian-language) translator, led by an officer, infiltrated 3.5 kilometres (two miles) behind enemy lines in the Al-Atira region on Tuesday and recovered the airman," the pro-government newspaper said.

If we had to rescue American or coalition aircraft crew down in enemy territory, we'd need Air Force rescue troops, helicopters/V-22s, slow moving combat aircraft, and other special forces and regular troops in reserve in case it gets sticky on the ground.

I hope I'm not assuming too much. After all, I'm a bit surprised that Russia didn't have their own forces in Syria capable of carrying out this mission.