Lockheed Martin announced that on Monday it delivered the seventh of 14 planned C-130Js destined for the 37th Airlift Squadron at Ramstein AB, Germany. Air Force Maj. Gen. Michael Snodgrass, chief of staff at US Africa Command, accepted the aircraft at Lockheed’s production facility in Marietta, Ga. While this C-130J, like all those going to the 37th AS, will be under US Air Forces in Europe, it will also support the airlift needs of AFRICOM. Ramstein is scheduled to receive three more C-130Js by year’s end and then the remaining four aircraft in 2010. The C-130Js are replacing the squadron’s C-130Es, the last of which left Ramstein for good on Nov. 2.
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.