An Aeronautical Systems Center official says that Air Mobility Command now has eight C-5 airlifters that have completed the Avionics Modernization Program—one more than needed to restart operational test & evaluation. (Another two AMP-complete C-5s are due out this month.) The eight have the new “state-of-the-art” cockpit that is the precursor to the second phase—new engines—of the full C-5 modernization effort. Dave Schairbaum, deputy director of ASC’s C-5 Systems Group, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, says that the plan is to brief Lt. Gen. John Hudson, ASC commander and program executive officer for aircraft, this month then move into OT&E in April.
The Space Development Agency says it’s on track to issue its next batch of missile warning and tracking satellite contracts this month after those awards were delayed by the Pentagon’s decision to divert funds from the agency to pay troops during this fall’s prolonged government shutdown.
