The Air Force’s decision to only upgrade some 220 C-130s as a result of cost growth in the avionics modernization program may not be the final word. Gene Rector of the Macon Telegraph reports that USAF is working up a plan to include, if possible, another 166 Hercules—including many flown by Air Force Special Operations Command. Col. Kevin Buckley, head of the 866th Aeronautical Systems Group at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, told the Georgia newspaper that discussions on the additional aircraft are underway, but funding restrictions could still rule the day. USAF expects to submit a plan to DOD within the next three months. The Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Georgia was to have a large share of the AMP work.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III chaired a China-focused military briefing Oct. 27, part of a biweekly series of briefings with senior military commanders about China’s growing threat in the wake of an orbital hypersonic weapon test that elicited public worries from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. “What we…