The entry portal for airmen assigned to South Korea changes Thursday from Osan Air Base to Incheon International Airport at Seoul, said USAF officials. To get from the airport to the base, airmen and family members—except pets—likely will use local bus service, contracted by the Air Force. The change reflects budgetary cutbacks that led the Air Force to cancel its commercial-contract airline service, called Patriot Express. USAF expects to eliminate the last of the Express charters by 2008.
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…