Lockheed Martin last week delivered the 150th C-130J Super Hercules it has produced to the Air Force for use by the California Air National Guard’s 146th Airlift Wing at Channel Islands ANGS, Calif. Brig. Gen. Darren McDew, vice commander of 18th Air Force at Scott AFB, Ill., flew the new aircraft from Lockheed’s production facility in Marietta, Ga., to the Channel Islands unit, which now has all eight of its new J model Hercules tactical airlifters. According to a Lockheed release, airmen of the 146th AW just returned from a 20-month deployment to Iraq, where four J models flew 5,444 sorties, delivering 12,681 tons of cargo and hauling 70,350 personnel.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall doesn’t see great value in trying to break the Sentinel ICBM program off as a separate budget item the way the Navy has with its ballistic-missile submarine program, saying such a move wouldn’t create any new money for the Air Force to spend on other…