The Air Force last week concluded climate testing of the C-5M Super Galaxy in the McKinley Climatic Lab in Florida. The M model is the designation given a C-5 that has received both avionics modernization program and reliability enhancement and re-engining program upgrades. The service in September alerted Congress that the RERP would break the Nunn-McCurdy threshold. However, USAF plans to continue modernizing the C-5B models, although the fate of A models, the oldest C-5s, remains a political hot potato. SSgt. Stacia Zachary reports that simply getting the mammoth airlifter into the lab was the “main challenge” for the climate testing. The lab hasn’t had a C-5 inside the test hangar since 1969 and had never before run the aircraft engines while it was inside.
The nation needs a better-coordinated policy for dealing with unmanned aerial systems that threaten domestic bases, Air Force vice chief of staff Gen. James C. Slife told a panel of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He and Pentagon acquisition and sustainment chief William LaPlante co-chair a panel looking at counter-UAS…