The North Dakota Air National Guard’s Happy Hooligans of the 119th Fighter Wing now are slated to get C-21s—the Air Force’s version of a small business Learjet—to replace the F-16 fighters it will lose under BRAC 2005, according to Associated Press news service. Previously Guard officials told North Dakota lawmakers that the unit was in line to fly C-130 airlifters from the Fargo ANG facility. The 119th should be truly ecstatic, now that they will be getting a small, nimble jet and will also be flying unmanned aerial vehicles.
With the Air Force in the midst of its biggest testing boom in decades, the Maintenance Operational Test (MxOT) Division at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., is making sure those tests include an often-overlooked perspective: that of maintainers.