Lockheed Martin announced Wednesday that the first of the Air Force’s C-5 transports slated to receive new engines and reliability improvements has been inducted into the company’s modification line in Marietta, Ga. Work on this aircraft, a C-5B model from Dover AFB, Del., will take place over the next 13 months, Lockheed said. All told, the Air Force plans to upgrade 52 of its 111 C-5s (one C-5A, 49 C-5Bs, and two C-5Cs) by 2016 under the reliability enhancement and re-engining program. Already the one C-5A and two C-5Bs were modified for use in testing these improvements. The RERP changes, coupled with new avionics installed under a separate initiative, will allow these 52 C-5s to climb higher and faster and carry more cargo over greater distances, all while being more reliable platforms. The remaining 59 C-5s, all C-5A models, will get only the new avionics.
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…