The Air Force relies heavily on its newest strategic airlifter to fly much of the tactical airlift in the US Central Command area of responsibility, evidenced by the numbers wracked up last month by the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron. Capt. Michael Andrews reports that the 816th EAS’s C-17s flew 44,945 passengers out of some 52,000 total throughout Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Horn of Africa. And, the unit delivered more than 36 million pounds of cargo.
The Department of the Air Force is consolidating more than 50 programs supporting its efforts to create a vast battle network into a single $4.5 billion contract vehicle to streamline software and technology integration.
