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ext week, the C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft of the Michigan Air National Guard’s 127th Wing will depart their home at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, reports the Detroit News. The Herk Air Guardsmen are training to fly and maintain the KC-135 tankers they are picking up from Air Force Reserve Command’s 927th Air Refueling Wing, which also leaves Selfridge. The Reservists leave their aircraft and join forces with the active duty 6th Air Mobility Wing at MacDill AFB, Fla. Meanwhile, back at Selfridge, the Air Guard’s 127th Wing also is trading its F-16s for A-10s.
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…