Airmen at RAF Milde
nhall, England, have been dismantling the five MH-53M Pave Low helicopters that are destined for the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz. The former 21st Special Operations Squadron helicopters took their last flights on Sept. 13 and will be at the boneyard by the end of November, reports TSgt. Tracy DeMarco. Air Force Special Operations Command deactivated the 21st SOS at Mildenhall last month and plans to activate it at Cannon AFB, N.M., as a CV-22 Osprey unit. For the Pave Low tear down, the maintenance airmen first remove the helicopter blades, which takes an 11-person team about an hour. They then spend a couple of days for the remainder of the tear down for shipment.
The Air Force on March 12 awarded contract modifications worth a combined $2.4 billion to Boeing to procure an undisclosed number of E-7 Wedgetail as part of the program's engineering and manufacturing development phase and continue work on the airborne battle management aircraft’s radar.