USAF’
s versatile C-17 airlifter—easily switching from strategic to tactical transport—recently completed an airdrop of 50,000 pounds of ammunition to US Army units engaged in a firefight in Afghanistan. It was the first such drop for a C-17 of the 817th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron’s Det. 1 based at Manas AB, Kyrgyzstan, and a first for most of its aircrew. (Read more here.)
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.