Boeing announced Feb. 17 that it had delivered to USAF on Feb. 8 the E-4B National Airborne Operations Center aircraft the company had just completed upgrading at its Wichita, Kan. facility. The 11-month-long upgrade included “extensive programmed depot maintenance refurbishment” to ensure the aircraft can operate effectively and meet FAA safety requirements, stated the company release. Steve Wade, Boeing GM for Global Transport and Executive Systems noted that the E-4B is “the most advanced communications aircraft in the world and on alert 24/7.” The company is on tap to upgrade a second E-4B with a full Mod Block to include a senior leadership communications system.
Special-ops aviators, a physicist from the intelligence community, and an enlisted Marine with decades of deployments: U.S. Space Command’s military and civilian leaders who spoke May 7 were as likely to come from strictly space backgrounds as not. These are some of the day’s insights from inside the command, which…