Gen. Paul Hester, head of Pacific Air Forces, formally accepted the command’s first C-17 airlifter, which will be assigned to Hickam AFB, Hawaii. The new transport is named Spirit of Hawai’i-Ke Aloha.” He told a crowd at Boeing’s Long Beach (Calif.) production facility on Feb. 7 that the new airlifter provides “the flexibility and dexterity to excel across the entire spectrum of military operations—it can provide humanitarian aid one day and support full-scale combat the next.” Boeing plans to deliver another seven C-17s to Hickam, where they will be flown and maintained by the active duty 15th Airlift Wing and Air National Guard 154th Wing.
This year’s Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting buzzed with talk of countering the rapidly evolving drone threat facing the entire U.S. military, including the Air Force. Leaders and defense industry officials discussed the need for new approaches to procurement and employment of a new class of these…
