Maj. Julie Petrina, an ANG C-130J pilot, noted Monday at the AFA conference that the Maryland Guard had to educate mission planners in the theater about the C-130J’s capabilities. Compared to older E and H model Hercules, the C-130Js fly faster, can offload quicker, and the stretched versions (making up about half the force in-theater) can carry larger loads. The mission planners in Southwest Asia didn’t initially understand the J model capabilities, however, and would schedule them to fly slower missions with smaller-than-ideal loads. “They don’t understand our capability,” Petrina said. The education process is still ongoing.
The Air Force’s nascent KC-Z program, aimed at developing a next-generation family of systems for aerial refueling, will look to launch its analysis-of-alternatives study in 2024, years earlier than originally planned. Originally, the analysis of alternatives for KC-Z was set for “maybe in the 2030s,” Paul Waugh, program executive officer…