The Arkansas Air National Guard’s 189th Airlift Wing got a sneak peek at one of the first C-130Hs with a new digital cockpit on March 21 when one of the test aircraft for the C-130 Avionics Modernization Program made a stop at Little Rock AFB, Ark. The 189th AW will be the Air Force’s schoolhouse for the modernized C-130s. Current plans have it on tap to receive nine of the upgraded transports, according to Col. Jim Summers, the wing’s commander. The first AMP’ed C-130 is expected to arrive in July 2010, and the wing anticipates being certified as the AMP formal training unit in 2013. (Little Rock report by MSgt. Bob Oldham)
Raytheon, a division of defense giant RTX, recently announced a multiyear deal with the Pentagon to increase annual production of the Air Force’s primary dogfighting missile by more than 50 percent from two years ago.
