Two C-130 Hercules aircraft from the California Air National Guard are helping to fight fires in Idaho for the next month, reports Associated Press news service. The Air Guardsmen and their airlifters fitted out with special tanks to dispense foam or water are working with the National Interagency Fire Center to cover the area from Montana to Northern California. The NIFC calls in Air Force support when it has exhausted other firefighting air assets. The North Carolina ANG had five fire-fighting C-130s working in Arizona earlier this summer.
B-52 Stratofortress bombers marked a new first in Operation Epic Fury when some of the BUFFs flew over Iran carrying JDAM-guided gravity bombs, according to people familiar with the matter. The development signals a weakening of Iranian air defenses and a new use for the venerable bomber in the nearly…