Lockheed Martin has delivered the last of the 50 C-5B aircraft that have received the Avionics Modernization Program upgrades, according to an Aug. 25 release. The company is continuing to upgrade C-5A models to complete all of the 108 mammoth airlifters in the current fleet. “We are at the halfway point in AMP aircraft redeliveries, our modification teams have consistently been on or ahead of schedule, and our quality has been exceptional,” said Lorraine Martin, Lockheed’s C-5 vice president. The AMP is replacing the C-5’s analog avionics with commercially available, digital avionics and an integrated architecture to more easily enable future upgrades. Lockheed also has just started the second part of USAF’s planned C-5 upgrades, the Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program destined for the B model portion of the fleet.
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.