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 Pentagon is considering ditching the Air Force’s plan to buy the E-7 Wedgetail as it looks to outsource the airborne target-tracking mission to space, defense officials indicated this week.