Manama: The role of the air force in the Middle East is expanding as the global demand for joint missions increases.
Joint missions are those involving humanitarian disaster relief, peacekeeping efforts and border security and surveillance operations.
Chris Chadwick, the president of Boeing Military Aircraft, speaking at a conference titled "The changing face of air power" at the Doha Aviation Summit drew attention to the fact that the air forces of smaller countries are increasingly collaborating with larger countries.
"The opportunity is growing for smaller tactical air forces, when combined with the right mix of well-connected logistics and strike aircraft, to contribute as much or more to coalition efforts that have much larger air forces," Chadwick said. "The world economy, ageing air force inventories, obsolescence of some of the hardware and the need for some coalition governments to do more with less, are all helping to change the existing force structure of air power," he was quoted by Qatari daily Gulf Times as saying on Wednesday.
In comments on the growing presence of Boeing platforms and systems among coalition air forces, Chadwick said: "There is no better company in the world to partner with than Boeing."
"We will provide an enduring partnership with our coalition force customers and have the ingredients to provide force-structure recapitalisation," he commented.
