The coalition airlift community at Manas AB, Kyrgyzstan, banded together recently when the “gateway” base had an “unusually large influx of troops,” reports Air Force journalist SSgt. Lara Gale. A Spanish Air Force detachment that normally transports Spanish personnel supporting the NATO mission in Afghanistan offered to ferry a group of USAF officers from Manas to Kabul, Afghanistan. To the USAF airmen, of course, it was just another C-130 ride.
After years of experiments and tests, senior Air Force leaders say they're on the verge of using C-17s and other cargo aircraft to launch cruise missiles via airdrop, touting the development as a way to bolster the combat fleet and a major shift in the service’s mindset.