The New York Air National Guard’s 109th Airlift Wing at Scotia, N.Y., has flown the final sortie this year for Operation Deep Freeze, capping a season of records compiled by the ANG unit and the 62nd Airlift Wing at McChord AFB, Wash. Combined the ANG’s LC-130s and a McChord C-17 broke previous mission and cargo records, flying supplies and personnel. The C-17 flew 51 missions from New Zealand to McMurdo Station, Antarctica, hauling more than three million pounds of supplies and 4,739 passengers. The ski-equipped LC-130s flew supplies and personnel within Antarctica, totaling 466 on-continent missions and 377 to the South Pole. The ANG unit moved 14.4 million pounds of cargo.
In the face of Chinese war plans to disrupt U.S. command-and-control networks in the event of a conflict, the Air Force needs to focus less on its “connect everything” efforts and prepare its combat aviators to fight without a constant connection to higher-ups, according to a new report from AFA’s…
