USAF personnel helped return to operational service the first of five Nigerian air force C-130 transports undergoing extensive overhaul. Seventeenth Air Force (Air Forces Africa) at Ramstein AB, Germany, is sponsoring this capacity-building initiative so that the Nigerian C-130s may support peacekeeping operations on the African continent. Members of 17th AF, the Tennessee Air National Guard’s 118th Airlift Wing in Nashville, and the C-130 program office at Robins AFB, Ga., supported the Nigerians as the aircraft went through programmed depot maintenance at a facility in Lisbon, Portugal. Among the depot work, maintainers overhauled the C-130’s engines and propellers and refurbished its cockpit and avionics. The USAF personnel also helped the Nigerians reintegrate the aircraft back into their fleet. The complete process took more than one year. (Ramstein report by SSgt. Stefanie Torres)
The U.S. supports “a stronger and more capable” European defense, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said during an Oct. 22 press conference in Brussels—but that defense should not duplicate the functions and capabilities of the NATO alliance.