The Air F
orce has turned over the first of its new Liberty Project Aircraft to the Mississippi Air National Guard’s 186th Air Refueling Wing at Key Field in Meridian. The plan unveiled last fall will place seven of the intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance-modified Hawker Beechcraft aircraft with the 186th ARW, which is slated to lose its KC-135 tankers under BRAC 2005. The unit, which also has about a dozen years experience operating RC-26 counterdrug mission aircraft, temporarily will run an MC-12 mission qualification detachment. The Air Force plans to field the MC-12W manned ISR aircraft in Southwest Asia beginning this month and expects to have all 37 LPA aircraft in hand by year’s end. Under Project Liberty, the service sought a readily available commercial aircraft that could be quickly modified for the ISR mission to help fill increasing requirements for battlefield intelligence.
The Air Force is now expecting delivery of the first VC-25B presidential transport by mid-2028, months ahead of its last official projection, a service spokesperson said this week. USAF also announced it is buying two used Boeing 747-8 jetliners for training and spare parts to be delivered in 2026, calling the $400 million deal part of its “acceleration efforts” for the oft-delayed presidential airlift program.
