The Air Force took delivery of its 190th production C-17 on Wednesday and then flew it to its new home at Charleston AFB, S.C., where it joined Air Force Reserve Command’s 315th Airlift Wing. Lt. Gen. Charles Stenner, AFRC boss, accepted the aircraft from Boeing at the company’s assembly plant in Long Beach, Calif., and then accompanied an all-Reserve crew from AFRC’s 317th Airlift Squadron on the cross-country flight to the South Carolina base. “It flies great,” said Stenner after arrival at Charleston. This C-17 is the 58th—active and Reserve—to be stationed at Charleston. Congress has authorized the Air Force to procure 213 C-17s to date; the service has already ordered 205 of them. USAF may receive funding for up to 10 more, depending on the outcome of the House-Senate conference on the final version of the Fiscal 2010 defense spending bill. (315th AW report by Capt. Bryan Lewis)
The White House announced its United States Space Priorities Framework in a document released concurrently with Vice President Kamala Harris' first National Space Council meeting. Listed among five U.S. priorities is to “defend its national security interests from the growing scope and scale of space and counterspace threats.”