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.
The Air Force has embraced new technical approaches like open mission systems and rapid software updates for cutting-edge aircraft like the B-21 and Collaborative Combat Aircraft. Increasingly, though, the service is also working to apply these to its older, “legacy” aircraft, officials said this week.