Airmen are learning how to drive the big boys—18-wheelers—of transportation at the Basic Combat Convoy Course at Lackland AFB, Tex. The airmen who graduate after mastering 18-wheel tractor-trailer supply trucks and gun trucks used for convoy supply missions, as well as combat lifesaver training, will go on to replace Army troops in Southwest Asia. USAF already has sent two air expeditionary truck detachments overseas and plans to graduate two more in two months. So far, the Air Force has trained about 1,200 airmen for convoy duty.
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.