The Air Mobility Command’s Air Mobility Battlelab, located at Ft. Dix, N.J., set up a show and tell on neighboring McGuire Air Force Base to demonstrate its wares and seek new ideas. This was one of several showcase events the lab has embarked upon recently. Among its “outreach efforts,” say lab officials, were AFA’s Air and Space Conference in Washington and the Airlift/Tanker Association Conference in Nashville. The point is to “get the word out,” says Col. Phil Bradley, lab commander. “Some of the best ideas we’ve worked have come from company grade officers and NCOs,” he said. The AMC lab is the newest of USAF’s seven battlelabs, created to quickly generate new solutions to frontline problems. Among projects worked by the Air Mobility Battlelab are a handheld device that may replace loads of paper normally carried by C-130 flight crews and an advanced contingency airfield lighting system.
As Air Force leaders consider concepts of operations for Collaborative Combat Aircraft, sustainment in the field—and easing that support by using standard parts and limiting variants—should be a key consideration, according to a new study from AFA's Mitchell Institute of Aerospace Studies.