USAF C-130 crews flying tactical airlift missions in Iraq routinely fly nine sorties in a day, often making multiple trips in and out of the same fields. According to one crew of six flying out of Balad AB, Iraq, their single day effort keeps 27 trucks and assorted support and security vehicles off some of the most dangerous roads in Iraq. The C-130s haul it all—from toilet paper to helicopter blades—reports the Red Tail Flyer. Capt. Marc Ayala, a pilot with the 777th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, said, “We see the war pass through our cargo bay.”
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…