Cargo movers with the 437th Aerial Port Squadron, Charleston AFB, S.C., the hub for delivering shipments of equipment to Southwest Asia, are streamlining the handling and delivery of those shipments. According to a Charleston news release, the 450 military and civilian squadron members cut needless steps by working “closely” with the Tanker Airlift Control Center at Scott AFB, Ill., to manage the cargo flow. Squadron members process as much as 200 tons of supplies each day. Delays in processing weapons arriving into Charleston, for example, evaporated when the initial checker gained approval authority for weapons to be airlifted. Since 95 percent of all weapons don’t require additional clearance, this new step expedited delivery of weapons to the warfighter. Said SSgt. Justin Halterman, “The process itself is now flowing 50 percent quicker and 50 percent more efficiently.”
RTX’s Raytheon unit was able to “significantly” extend the range of the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile using mostly software changes in experimental tests last year, expanding the reach and lethality of the standard U.S. dogfighting weapon, company officials said Sept. 15.
