For the past 19 years, Lockheed Martin has been running the Aircrew Training and Rehearsal Support program at Hurlburt Field, Fla., (as well as some operations at Kirtland AFB, N.M.) for the Air Force’s special operations and rescue aircrews. According to Lockheed Martin’s Flight Training Director Tom Dorsey, the effort has not only provided normal contract logistics support and onsite technology upgrades and modifications, but also formal training for an estimated 1,200 fixed and rotary wing students a year. Another 2,600 students come in for refresher training, working, along with 108 instructors, in a fully computer-networked environment. The result is a more unified and consistent training effort across AFSOC, from HH-60 Pave Hawks to C-130 Combat Talon crews that does not take aircraft out of operational status. The “soup to nuts approach” covers nearly every aspect of training outside tactics, Dorsey told us during a visit to the company’s Orlando facility.
Tennessee Guard to Receive Eight KC-46s
Nov. 20, 2025
The Air Force has tapped McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base as its preferred location for the next base to host KC-46 aerial refuelers, replacing the KC-135s that have been there since the 1970s.
