During a briefing at this week’s Farnborough Air Show, Boeing announced a new program designed to extend the service life of the Air Force’s premier tactical airlifter–the C-130 Hercules–for up to 30 years. The Total Life Extension program will address some of the airlifters modernization needs, such as avionics, structures and systems, according to company officials. A key part of the program includes the patent-pending Center Wing Box solution, an avionics package that would bring the CWB up to modern aviation standards–and could be installed without having to remove the box from its structure, Boeing claims.
The Air Force kicked off one of its biggest exercises this week with the latest edition of Bamboo Eagle, featuring combined virtual and live training scenarios focused on test the command-and-control “nervous system” leaders need to operate on a complex joint battlefield spread over vast distances.
