Members of the Tennessee Air National Guard’s 164th Airlift Wing in Memphis inaugurated the unit’s transition from the C-5A transport to the C-17, reported Memphis’ The Commercial Appeal. The Feb. 2 ceremony featured two of the eight C-17s on display that the wing will have in place by 2015, according to the newspaper’s report from that same day. “Anytime you change from one platform to another is really a major thing within the military,” said wing spokesman Capt. Ben Alumbaugh. Wing maintainers began training on the C-17 last year at JB McChord-Lewis, Wash, in preparation for the arrival of the new airlifter type at Memphis.
A combined Navy and Air Force program is seeking to build a smaller version of a ubiquitous air-to-air missile that could give advanced aircraft, such as the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, greater magazine depth in a high-end fight.