Take a collision-damaged F-15 and send it to the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, Robins AFB, Ga., hospital section for life-sustaining surgery. Some 37 blue-suit and civilian mechanics and technicians worked a combined 5,000 man-hours—just over eight months work—to complete extensive repairs to an F-15 damaged in a mid-air collision over the Sea of Japan last year. They replaced the skin and a major wiring harness and made other structural repairs—a new canopy and nose and right vertical stabilizer and ailerons. USAF officials say the key to the whole process was sending civilians along to help disassemble and crate up the aircraft for shipment back to Robins. That, they say, was a first.
National Guard adjutants general from nearly two dozen states have signed a letter to Congress seeking multiyear funding for the Air Force to purchase between 72 and 100 new fighter jets per year to modernize the total force.The letter, sent to Congress last week, stresses the need for the Air…