The first C-130 transport that will undergo a radically new maintenance process being applied to the entire C-130 fleet arrived as planned July 31 at Robins AFB, Ga., home of the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, the C-130 fleet’s depot. It is the first of three C-130s that will enter the ALC before year’s end to validate the new high-velocity maintenance process, which is designed to shorten the time that individual C-130s are down for maintenance and inspections, thereby making more of them available on a daily basis for missions. Under HVM, C-130s will enter the depot every 18 months instead of every five to six years as the practice has been. The Air Force has also approved HVM for the B-1B fleet and is assessing it for the F-22. (Robins report by Ed Drohan) (For more, read High Velocity Maintenance in the August issue of Air Force Magazine.)
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.