Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.) is trying to land a few of the C-27 Spartans, selected as the Joint Cargo Aircraft winner, for Little Rock AFB, Ark. The Leader reports that Snyder, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, commended Little Rock as a “great place for cargo plane training,” since it already has the market on Air Force training for the C-130J tactical airlifter. The JCA is an Army-Air Force program, which just sustained a protest from the Raytheon-led Team JCA—its C-295 lost out to the L-3 Communications-led team’s C-27. Despite Snyder’s interest, however, The Leader reports that the Little Rock commander, Col. Rowayne Schatz, says the base will not see the intratheater airlifter. He apparently told the Jacksonville (Ark.) Chamber of Commerce, “That mission will not come to Little Rock.”
The U.S. sent Air Force F-16s over central Syria in a show of force following the Dec. 13 killing of two U.S. Army Soldiers and one American civilian interpreter by a gunman linked to the Islamic State group.
