352nd SOG & 353rd SOG to expand

[wamovements]

AFSOC FY13 and beyond CENTCOM

General Fiel laid out his road ahead at an AFSOC panel. His top 5 priorities for FY13 are AC/MC130 Recapitalization, CV-22 to EUCOM, U-28, AC-130W, and AvFID. Pacific and Europe squadrons are going to be larger than in the past, specifically with 10-12 planes per squadron with respect to MC-130s. Even with this expansion of OCONUS assets AFSOC will continue to rely on big Air Force and big Army to be able to operate.

[PNegri]

Ospreys, Commando IIs to Mildenhall: Air Force Special Operations Command plans to stand up a squadron of CV-22 Ospreys at RAF Mildenhall, England, said AFSOC Commander Lt. Gen. Eric Fiel. "Probably June or July [2013], we'll be standing up our third CV-22 squadron when the first CV-22s land at Mildenhall," he said at the four-star forum of AFA's Air and Space Conference in National Harbor, Md., on Sept. 19. Next summer, AFSOC also plans to replace its legacy MC-130 covert operations aircraft at Mildenhall. Shortly after the Ospreys arrive, "we'll begin to recap our ageing MC-130 fleet, both our Talon IIs and our Combat Shadows," by replacing them with the MC-130J Commando II, said Fiel. AFSOC hopes to introduce CV-22s into the Pacific region as well, in 2014, he added. The command originally planned to deploy CV-22s to England this year.