Air Force Materiel Command personnel from various units united to figure out how to get a B-1B bomber damaged by a fire in its No. 4 engine during a mission over Afghanistan to a safe environment for repairs. John Scaggs reports that ultimately eight enlisted mechanics from the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, which provides repair and depot work on B-1s, deployed to Southwest Asia. On-site maintenance crews had removed the engine, leaving the OK-ALC crew to ready the bomber for flight with only three engines, “a dicey proposition.” Air Force Reservists from the 10th Flight Test Squadron at Tinker AFB, Okla., used a simulator at Dyess AFB, Tex., to prepare themselves for the flight and joined with Air Combat Command aircrew members, since the departure point was in a war zone, and flew the bomber in two legs to a standby airfield, RAF Fairford, England, where engineers and mechanics are considering whether they can fully repair the bomber at Fairford.
Navy Adm. Samuel J. Paparo Jr. assumed leadership of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, succeeding Navy Adm. John Aquilino at a change of command ceremony, urging action amid China's “increasing intrusive and expansionist claims,” on May 3