Lockheed Martin recently delivered a pair of MC-130J Commando II special mission aircraft from its Marietta, Ga., production facility to RAF Mildenhall, England, the company announced. Mildenhall’s 352nd Special Operations Group is slated to receive a total of 12 new-build MC-130Js to replace the unit’s legacy MC-130P/H fleet, which flew its final sortie back in January. “Air Force Special Operations Command has received 24 MC-130Js” as part of its overall fleet recapitalization efforts and “another two scheduled for delivery by the end of the year,” company spokeswoman Stephanie Sonnenfeld-Stinn told Air Force Magazine on Dec. 10. AFSOC currently plans to buy a total of 85 MC-130J special operations aircraft and convert 16 of those airframes into AC-130J Ghostrider gunships. In addition to the MC-130Js, the 352nd SOG also is taking delivery of 10 tilt-rotor CV-22 Ospreys, which the aircraft will support with tactical aerial refueling on covert infiltration and special operations resupply missions.
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…