Air Force Gen. Duncan McNabb, head of US Transportation Command, had the sympathetic ear of Rep. Vic. Snyder (D-Ark.) last week concerning the fate of the Air Force’s Johnson-era C-130E transports. During a Feb. 25 joint hearing of the House Armed Services air-land and seapower panels on the US military’s transportation efforts, McNabb made it clear that he would welcome Congress lifting the legal restrictions on those C-130Es no longer flying so that they could be removed from costly Type 1000 storage—essentially in mothballs—and fully retired and scrapped. “It really doesn’t make sense for us to put any kind of additional investment into the C-130Es,” he said during a dialogue with Synder. Lifting the storage mandate would allow these aircraft’s parts to be used as spares for others, McNabb said. And, some of these C-130Es, if given new center wing boxes, might have some resale value as foreign military sales assets for countries with less-demanding needs, he said. Snyder asked McNabb if he would provide the committee with “the language that you would think would be helpful”—meaning suggestions for wording in next year’s defense authorization bill to end the storage mandate. McNabb said he would. (Also see McNabb’s written testimony)
US Down to 5,000 Troops Across Afghanistan, Iraq
Jan. 15, 2021
U.S. military forces in Afghanistan and Iraq have shrunk to 5,000 troops across both countries, with 2,500 personnel in each, meeting a Jan. 15 deadline from President Donald J. Trump to reduce the military’s footprint in the Middle East. The withdrawal marks the lowest level of American troops in Afghanistan…