Technicians at the Ogden Air Logistics Center at Hill AFB, Utah, finished the Night Air-to-Air Refueling modification on the center’s first batch of F-22As, making the mods on 18 Raptors early. Bill Orndorff reports that they took this new workload in stride, learning how to work on the new stealth fighters first during 2.5 months of training at Nellis AFB, Nev., and Tyndall AFB, Fla., and supplemental training with Lockheed Martin. Those who worked with the aircraft’s stealth coating received the most training, since the Hill technicians had never worked on low observable aircraft. The F-22 is the first new aircraft workload at Hill since the center undertook support for the A-10s in the 1990s. Next on the agenda is a structural retrofit for the first production F-22s.
The cost of the nuclear AGM-181 Long-Range Stand Off missile has come down slightly and the program is on track, but several technologies it relies on are still considered immature, the Government Accountability Office found in a report. Meanwhile, the GAO also assessed the LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile as…