Maintainers with the New York Air National Guard’s 109th Airlift Wing recently discovered that strips of a synthetic coating inside the fuel tanks of the unit’s C-130s had peeled off, causing the unit’s leaders to ground the aircraft for more than a week, reports the Albany Times-Union. Wing officials told the newspaper that the move was precautionary, since the problem could have led to a clogged fuel pump.
A legislative standoff has led to a lapse in a $4.26 billion small business innovation contracting program widely used by the Air Force and could spell the end of it entirely, industry sources warned Air & Space Forces Magazine.
