Airmen at Andersen AFB, Guam, assembled and readied 1,500 air-to-ground weapons in four days, surpassing all objectives during last month’s Combat Ammunition Production Exercise, according to officials with Andersen’s 36th Wing. The annual drill “tests the abilities and capabilities of a wing to produce a wartime-scenario munitions build,” said Pacific Air Forces logistics boss Col. Herb Phillips, who oversaw CAPEX. “The wing certainly knows how to build bombs,” he added. The unit delivered 96 percent of weapons for on-time loading on the B-52 bombers deployed on a rotation to the strategic island hub from Minot AFB, N.D. “The more experience we have loading these missiles, the quicker we are at providing assets, and doing this along with the CAPEX gives everyone more of a timeline,” said MSgt. Christopher McKeen, 36th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron weapons chief. CAPEX ran from April 23 to April 26. (Andersen report by SrA. Veronica McMahon)
The Air Force's new Aircraft Readiness Unit will maintain and provide Collaborative Combat Aircraft for operations, but won’t serve as a “schoolhouse” teaching fighter pilots how to manage these escort drones.