Airmen of Air Force Reserve Command’s 919th Special Operations Wing at Duke Field, Fla., dropped the last of the operational “Daisy Cutter” bombs July 15 at the Utah Test and Training Range. Flying an MC-130E, members of the 711th Special Operations Squadron dropped the 15,000-pound BLU-82 bomb via parachute, much as airmen of the same unit did during the early days of Operation Enduring Freedom to eliminate Taliban forces in the mountain caves of Afghanistan. The big bomb, known as “Commando Vault” in its Vietnam War days, provided “significant psychological and tactical effect,” said Col. Jon Weeks, 919th SOW vice commander. “Even flying the chase plane at 6,000 feet above ground level and approximately three-quarters of a mile away from the bomb’s detonation point, we felt a shock wave that shook the aircraft,” commented Weeks. The Air Force currently has no plans to produce more of the bombs. (919th SOW report by Capt. Patrick Nichols)
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…