Airmen and Navy personnel completed salvage operations to recover the wreckage of an F-16 from Aviano AB, Italy, that crashed in the Adriatic Sea off the coast of Italy last month. Navy divers from Mobile Diving Salvage Unit 2, advised by Aviano airmen, recovered more than 200 pieces of debris in the several-weeks-long operation aboard the USNS Grapple, according to Aviano’s Feb. 25 release. “We have overcome cold weather, bad sea state, mud, and zero visibility,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Andrew Swartwood. The Jan. 28 crash took the life of Maj. Lucas Gruenther. (Aviano report by SSgt. Evelyn Chavez)
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…