AMC chief Gen. Duncan McNabb said it will take somewhere between $22 million and $25 million per aircraft to refurbish AMC’s grounded C-130E-model aircraft with everything those old Hercs need to be viable weapons systems. Avionics, engines, and center wing boxes all need work. But even then, AMC would have upgraded but 40-year-old aircraft. “At some point, this is not good for the nation,” McNabb said, when there are brand new C-130Js and Joint Cargo Aircraft the Air Force could more profitably spend the money on instead.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week released strategies meant to focus the Pentagon’s “alphabet soup” of innovation organizations and proliferate artificial intelligence—moves that experts say could provide the structure needed to make the military’s efforts to integrate and field new technology more effective.

