Officials and visitors at Dover AFB, Del., broke ground on a new C-17 training facility and celebrated the expected arrival of the aircraft. Dover is getting a new $5.6 million state-of-the-art training facility that will feature a new full-motion C-17 aircraft simulator from Boeing’s St. Louis factory, said Capt. Scott McAuliffe, Air Force project manager for the facility. The simulator will help ease the transition from C-5s to C-17s. The Air Force plans to send nine of Dover’s 27 C-5s to other bases, making way for 13 new C-17s slated for arrival in summer 2007.
Boeing’s receipt of the 10th lot contract award for the KC-46 Pegasus this week leaves just three lots left to complete the Air Force’s buy of the tanker, although a further buy of 75 additional aircraft as a “bridge” to the Next-Generation Aerial-refueling System (NGAS) seems increasingly likely.