The Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center has created a partnership arrangement with Boeing on a system upgrade for USAF’s E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft fleet that lets the ALC technicians, working with L3 Communications personnel, perform the upgrades on the next eight aircraft. The entire Integrated Demand Assigned Multiple Access-Global Air Traffic Management—known as IDG—upgrade requires about 6,500 labor hours per aircraft, reports the Tinker Take-Off. The OCALC expects to reach agreements covering the remainder of the E-3 fleet.
Defense experts say the drone threat represents only part of a larger, looming problem: U.S. air bases in the Pacific are increasingly vulnerable to air attacks.