Air Force Reserve Command’s 908th Airlift Wing at Maxwell AFB, Ala., got its first revamped C-130 Hercules last week, and the Montgomery Advertiser reports that the unit considers the $10 million upgrade “a bargain.” The “new” C-130 is part of the Air Force’s planned C-130 avionics modernization program, which currently is under review for breaching the Nunn-McCurdy threshold. Air Force officials expect to decide a way forward for the program this month.
U.S. Air Force F-35s and F-22s regularly deploy deep into the Pacific region from Alaska, Utah, and Hawaii. In the future, though, the head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command would like to see the Air Force permanently station fifth-generation aircraft west of the international date line—closer to China.