Lockheed Martin announced that on Monday it delivered the seventh of 14 planned C-130Js destined for the 37th Airlift Squadron at Ramstein AB, Germany. Air Force Maj. Gen. Michael Snodgrass, chief of staff at US Africa Command, accepted the aircraft at Lockheed’s production facility in Marietta, Ga. While this C-130J, like all those going to the 37th AS, will be under US Air Forces in Europe, it will also support the airlift needs of AFRICOM. Ramstein is scheduled to receive three more C-130Js by year’s end and then the remaining four aircraft in 2010. The C-130Js are replacing the squadron’s C-130Es, the last of which left Ramstein for good on Nov. 2.
The Air Force’s nascent KC-Z program, aimed at developing a next-generation family of systems for aerial refueling, will look to launch its analysis-of-alternatives study in 2024, years earlier than originally planned. Originally, the analysis of alternatives for KC-Z was set for “maybe in the 2030s,” Paul Waugh, program executive officer…