The last
of 16 C-130J transports destined for the 41st Airlift Squadron at Little Rock AFB, Ark., arrived at the base July 7. Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott, commander of Air Mobility Command’s 18th Air Force, flew the Super Hercules from Lockheed Martin’s assembly plant in Marietta, Ga. He said it was an honor “second to none” to bring this C-130J to Little Rock. The 41st AS is the first active-duty combat-delivery C-130J unit in the Air Force. The unit first deployed some of its C-130Js to Southwest Asia in early 2008. And this part March, elements of the unit began operating from Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan. According to Lockheed, the 41st AS has racked up 2,600 combat sorties and 4,000 flight hours in the past two years, carrying a total of 56,000 passengers and 3,500 tons of cargo. (Little Rock report by SrA. Nathan Allen) (See also Lockheed Martin’s release)
The Space Development Agency has already awarded contracts for most of the satellites that will form the beginnings of its massive planned constellation in low-Earth orbit, and on May 26 the agency awarded a deal for the ground systems to go with it. General Dynamics Mission Systems won the contract,…