A US Air Force C-17 from Hickam AFB, Hawaii and one from Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, delivered about 226,000 pounds of humanitarian supplies to China on Feb. 8 to help aid people in 19 provinces hard hit by severe winter storms. The C-17 from the 535th Airlift Squadron at Hickam picked up the supplies at Kadena AB, Japan on the island of Okinawa and flew into Shanghai International Airport, turning the cargo over to the People’s Liberation Army.
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.