Canada’s Air Force has just received the first of four C-17 strategic airlifters. CTV.ca reports that air officials had to fight some Canadian politicians, who maintained that the air force could continue to rent airlifters whenever needed. The Canadian Air Force Chief, Lt. Gen. Angus Watt, noted that the pool of rental aircraft is small and during a crisis “everyone’s trying to rent them at the same time.” The new Canadian airlifter could be deployed to Afghanistan soon.
The Air Force is launching an effort to develop a new stand-off missile with a range of 1,000 nautical miles, or 1,150 miles, that would eventually be used for both air-to-air and air-to-surface missions.