Air War Heats Up As Syrian Front Concerns-top line warplanes used

Turkey has authorised the use of military force against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.It has also given permission for other countries to use its bases,such as Incerlik Air Base,in the conflict.
Several US and Arab ally airstrikes have been carried out in the Kobani area of Northern Syria in recent weeks as US allies the Kurdish ground forces attempt to save the strategically important city from Islamic State militants.The IS is trying to stretch its control over a swath of territory more than 100 kilometers-or 62 miles-from its headquarters in Raqqa,Syria to Kobani near the Turkish border.The airstrikes destroyed two IS fighting positions south of Kobani Tuesday.Also,witnesses observed two large plumes of smoke just west of Kobani after hearing the sounds of military aircraft.Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been participating in these Syria airstrikes.
One of the targets struck was an IS staging area/IED factory.
Despite the increased tempo of the air war against them,the militants have succeeded in capturing several villages near the city and making various incursions into it,raising their black and white flag.The IS has seized several buildings on the southern edge of town,as well as a hospital being built on the western side.Kurdish forces were still flying their flag over the center of town as of Tuesday,but are outnumbered and outgunned.*
Over the weekend,US Army Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopter gunships were brought into the air war for the first time to engage the enemy west of Baghdad,a sign of the deteriorating situation in Anbar Province.The targets there,as well as many of them in Kobani,are too close to Kurdish forces or the Turkish border to use fighter aircraft
against.*
On 22 September,the US Air Force sent its front line Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor fighters into combat for the first time ever.The Raptor,a stealth aircraft with internalised weapons bays,were used to strike IS targets in Syria.It was deemed appropriate to send them because of uncertainty about whether Syria might switch on its advanced air defences as the US conducted its first raids over Syria.In the event,Syria did not respond.
The Raptors were sent in the second wave of attacks.Stationed in the Middle East,the fifth generation warplanes can fly very high and fast-more than Mach 1.5-in all weather.The US Air Force has 188 of these agile strike aircraft.*
Also recently brought into the air war over Iraq were the RAF Panavia Tornado fighters.These swept wing aircraft are considered to be among the best high speed/low level attack planes in the world.They flew in from RAF Akrotiri,Cyprus.*
Lockheed Martin(LMT),Boeing(BA)

Intel Gathering Over Syria Begins-possibly with the U-2 spy plane

We have a fundamentalist state in the center of the Middle East,General Michael V. Hayden,US Air Force Retired,former director of both the CIA and NSA,said of the Islamic State-also called ISIL or ISIS.We have got to take the wood to ISIS and clearly make them less capable.It's a government and an army.We need to begin to treat ISIS territory the way we have treated Waziristan,the Islamic militant stronghold in Pakistan,making them wary about their own security.*
There was genuine grief,genuine anger in the President's statement on the beheading of the journalist James Foley by ISIS in Syria.The question I have is,what are we going to do about it?I think we have to do more to degrade them.The tide of war is not receding.We might have to do it with some of our own forces on the ground,GEN Hayden noted.*
President Obama has just ordered the beginning of reconnaissance flights over Syria,a precursor to possible airstrikes on the Islamic State heartland.The militants had seized an airfield in Northern Syria on Monday.You have no allies to speak of in Syria;zero intelligence in Eastern Syria where ISIL is concentrated,said Bob Baer,formerly with the CIA.*
A possible choice to carry out at least some of the recon is the Lockheed U-2 spyplane,which can fly at 70,000 feet,day or night and in all-weather.It has superior cameras and sensors to the RQ-4 Global Hawk drone.The House Armed Services Committee has forbidden the expenditure of funds on the retirement,planned retirement or storage of the U-2 in its 2015 budget markup.*
U-2 units that could be tasked with Syrian overflights are the US Air Force 99th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron out of Al Dahfra Air Base,UAE;or the 99th Reconnaissance Squadron Detachment 3 out of RAF Akrotiri,Cyprus.*
Lockheed Martin(LMT)

Elite Marines Defend Cairo Embassy

About a dozen members of the U.S. Marines' elite Fleet Anti-terrorism Security Teams(FAST) have flown to Cairo,Egypt to augment the Marine guards already protecting the U.S. Embassy there.The State Department has also added more agents from the Bureau of Diplomatic Security to the cadre.The military plane the FAST members flew in on was then detailed to begin airlifting Americans out of the unstable city to safety in Larnaca,Cyprus.
Established in 1987,the FAST teams perform security missions as directed by the Chief of Naval Operations,presently Admiral Gary Roughead.FAST consists of two Companies plus a training Company,all of them based in Virginia.Primarily designed to conduct defensive combat ops,military security ops and rear area security ops,they also safeguard nuclear materials when nuclear-powered submarines are in port.
FAST have seen a heavy ops tempo since their inception,serving everywhere from Panama to Somalia.They conduct security patrols around perimeters,establish ambush positions along known avenues of approach,and practice close quarter combat skills in urban environments.Each FAST Company has 321 Marines,including Designated Marksmen.
The FAST Marines are armed with an array of firepower,such as 60mm mortars;M-16A2 rifles;M-16A2/M-203 40mm grenade launchers;Beretta M-9 9mm pistols and SMAW Anti-tank rockets.