The Wyoming Air National Guard says that its first-of-its-kind active associate unit is fully deployable “months ahead of schedule.” The active duty airmen of the 30th Airlift Squadron are stationed at Cheyenne, Wyo., where they are working with the Wyoming Air National Guard’s 153rd Airlift Wing, flying and maintaining C-130 tactical transports. The new arrangement is the flip side of a reserve associate unit, in which reservists share aircraft and work with an active unit.
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…