The Air Force last week concluded climate testing of the C-5M Super Galaxy in the McKinley Climatic Lab in Florida. The M model is the designation given a C-5 that has received both avionics modernization program and reliability enhancement and re-engining program upgrades. The service in September alerted Congress that the RERP would break the Nunn-McCurdy threshold. However, USAF plans to continue modernizing the C-5B models, although the fate of A models, the oldest C-5s, remains a political hot potato. SSgt. Stacia Zachary reports that simply getting the mammoth airlifter into the lab was the “main challenge” for the climate testing. The lab hasn’t had a C-5 inside the test hangar since 1969 and had never before run the aircraft engines while it was inside.
The emphasis on speed in the Pentagon’s newly unveiled slate of acquisition reforms may come with increased near-term cost increases, analysts say. But according to U.S. defense officials, the new weapons-buying construct provides the military with enough flexibility to prevent runaway budget overruns in major programs.
