Air Force officials testifying before the House Armed Services Air and Land Forces Subcommittee on March 7 stated that, as of last month, the service has grounded or restricted 53 C-130 tactical airlifters. Surprisingly, all but one serves with an active unit. Among these bad actors are three C-130E Hercules that would require at least $2 million per aircraft to repair. The Air Force does plan to repair cracked center wing boxes of up to 62 C-130E and H models—at an average cost of $700,000 per aircraft—until it can replace the boxes. It must make these interim repairs to “maintain a combat effective intra-theater airlift fleet.” Still, the joint statement for Lt. Gen. Donald Hoffman, Lt. Gen. Howie Chandler, and Maj. Gen. Thomas Kane, noted that “vanishing vendors,” safety modifications, and decreased access to international airspace—an avionics modernization program is in the works to correct this problem—“limit the overall effectiveness” of the airlift “workhorse.”
An F-16 Fighting Falcon assigned to the Texas Air National Guard’s 149th Fighter Wing crashed during a training mission in Michigan on Sept. 17. The fighter's sole pilot ejected and is in stable condition at a local hospital.
