The Bell-Boeing team has delivered the first combat-configured CV-22 tilt-rotor aircraft to Air Force Special Operations Command. Getting the keys to the new Osprey was Lt. Col. Jim Cardoso, commander of 71st Special Operations Squadron, which will use the new special ops aircraft for aircrew training at Kirtland AFB, N.M. At a March 1 ceremony at the Bell assembly center in Amarillo, Tex., Maj. Gen. Donald Wurster, AFSOC vice commander, called the CV-22 “the single most significant transformation” for special ops since introduction of the helicopter. AFSOC expects to field the CV-22 by 2009.
The AIM-120 AMRAAM will likely be the complement to the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile, a Raytheon executive said. He characterized the JATM as an expensive, "kick-down-the-door" weapon, while he argued that AMRAAM is the more affordable missile to be used in larger quantities.