Lockheed Martin announced Tuesday that the Air Force’s first HC-130J combat rescue tanker left the company’s assembly facility in Marietta, Ga., on April 3 and is now being painted prior to enter flight testing. The company said this airframe will be presented to the Air Force during an April 19 ceremony and then delivered later in the year. The new tanker is expected to enter operations in mid-2012. Final assembly of this first HC-130J began last October.
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.