Really Major InfestationCall the 910th: There is only one unit in the Defense Department that has full-time, fixed-wing aerial spray capability—Air Force Reserve Command’s 910th Airlift Wing, Youngstown, Ohio. The unit has sent two specially equipped C-130s and 50 crew members to Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi to knock out the mosquitoes and filth flies proliferating since Katrina came through the area. Such pests carry a host of diseases. The Reservists are flying out of Duke Field, Fla., and can cover 60,000 acres per C-130 each day.
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.