The Air Mobility Command Museum at Dover AFB, Del., on Aug. 7 took delivery of a KC-135E tanker that will join its other 27 aircraft on permanent display. “This is just another part of what we’re supposed to be doing, preserving the history of airlift and air refueling,” said Jim Leech, museum curator. The aircraft was formerly assigned to the New Jersey Air National Guard’s 108th Air Refueling Wing at McGuire Air Force Base. Brig. Gen. Mike Cunniff, commander of the Air Guard wing, piloted the aircraft to Dover. He said this KC-135E is “the very last operational airplane” of its type. The aircraft will have to undergo some maintenance and have all of its fuel and other fluids removed, before being put on display. (Dover report by SSgt. Chad Padgett)
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…