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.)
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.