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.
The rate of building B-21 bombers would speed up if the fiscal 2026 defense budget passes. But it remains unclear how much capacity would be added, and whether the Air Force would simply build the bombers faster, or buy more.