The estimated cost of repairing three C-130s damaged in a tornado last month at Little Rock AFB, Ark., has gone up. Initially pegged at about $6 million to fix the three aircraft, the estimate now stands at twice that, reported the Warner Robins Patriot last week. The Daily Report confirmed the new estimate with a Robins spokesman. The Georgia base is home to the Aerospace Sustainment Directorate that dispatched a team to Little Rock to inspect these airplanes. Two of the three aircraft are 1962-vintage C-130Es that would require $3 million apiece to repair. The third airframe, a C-130H, would need about $6 million of work, according to the assessment team. While the decision to repair or dispose of the aircraft rests with Air Mobility Command, both E models were already slated for retirement later this year, making their refurbishment unlikely, an assessment team member told the Patriot.
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…