The 
Air Force last week received its first new-build MC-130J Combat Shadow II special-mission aircraft. Lt. Gen. Eric Fiel, Air Force Special Operations Command boss, flew the aircraft from Lockheed Martin’s production facility in Marietta, Ga., to Cannon AFB, N.M., its new home. The MC-130J joins the 522nd Special Operations Squadron, a part of Cannon’s 27th Special Operations Wing. “Members of the 522th SOS will rewrite history as they fly the MC-130 farther, faster, and higher,” said Fiel at the Sept. 29 aircraft acceptance ceremony. “As innovative air commandos, you will push this plane to its limits and find creative ways to employ our people more effectively.” This aircraft is the first of 69 new MC-130Js that the Air Force plans to equip AFSOC with to replace the command’s MC-130E/H/P/W special-role aircraft. The Air Force last week also received its first new HC-130J Combat King II. (Cannon report by A1C Alexxis Pons Abascal) (Lockheed release)
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…