T
he commander of Air Force Special Operations Command, Lt. Gen. Michael Wooley, has just capped his 35-year career, with a final flight during which he piloted an AC-130H gunship from AFSOC’s newest facility, Cannon AFB, N.M., to AFSOC’s home at Hurlburt Field, Fla. First Lt. Amy Cooper reports that the aircraft he flew got the traditional hosing, as did Wooley when his wife and four-year-old grandson doused him with a fire hose as he left the aircraft. Wooley relinquished command on Nov. 23 to Maj. Gen. Donald Wurster.
The Air Force is leaning toward a less-sophisticated autonomous aircraft in the second increment of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, the services chief futurist said. He also suggested that the next increment of CCA may be air-launched, a la the "Rapid Dragon" experiments conducted by the service in recent years.