Lockheed Martin has just delivered the first C-130J Hercules airlifter for 2006 to Air Force Reserve Command’s 403rd Wing at Keesler AFB, Miss. This new longer-fuselage J model is the fifth of eight new Hercules that the unit will gain. Lockheed says it has delivered 136 of the total 182 C-130Js the Air Force has on order.
A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on…