Air Combat Command has 15 specialists looking over the shoulders of the Lockheed Martin production crews working at Marietta, Ga., to turn out new F-22A Raptors. The ACC team inspects each aircraft at it’s being built, eliminating the need for a 30-day tear-down of each new Raptor after it’s delivered to the Air Force, reports Air Force journalist Josh Aycock. MSgt. Timothy Silkwood, Raptor Acceptance Team superintendent, explains that only the ACC team can OK work on 257 inspection areas and turn over a “pre-accepted aircraft.” The team estimates that its work will save the Air Force around $119 million.
The Air Force kicked off one of its biggest exercises this week with the latest edition of Bamboo Eagle, featuring combined virtual and live training scenarios focused on test the command-and-control “nervous system” leaders need to operate on a complex joint battlefield spread over vast distances.
