Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan continues to serve as the focal point for much of the US earthquake-relief aid to Pakistan. Operation Enduring Freedom’s Combined Joint Task Force 76 has orchestrated relief efforts, including the first remote airdrop on Oct. 14. Airmen and soldiers at Bagram worked through the night to finish loading 46,000 pounds of supplies in 43 bundles aboard a USAF C-130, which flew from Bagram to Islamabad, Pakistan. There, US Army helicopters dispersed the bundles, delivering about 20,000 pounds by parachute airdrop to remote areas.
The Air Force awarded a $13.08 billion contract to the Sierra Nevada Corporation on April 26 for its Survivable Airborne Operations Center aircraft, the successor to the service’s E-4B “Doomsday” plane. Like the E-4B, officially called the National Airborne Operations Center, the SAOC will be meant to withstand a nuclear attack and keep…