A C-17 transport from McChord AFB, Wash., later this month will deliver aid provided by a local non-profit project in the area around Tacoma and Olympia, Wash., to the Mexican city of Ayutla, in that country’s Jalisco state. Tacoma’s News Tribune reported Aug. 29 that members of Air Force Reserve Command’s 446th Airlift Wing at McChord will fly the C-17, which will carry a firetruck and 12 pallets of emergency equipment, including medical supplies, computers, and safety gear for Ayutla, on Sept. 19 to Mexico. The aid project was begun after news came to light of the deaths of three people in a car accident around Ayutla due to the fact that the city had no ambulance to transport them to a hospital. Already the project has provided police cars and an ambulance to the city. Use of the C-17 in this support role is made possible by the Denton amendment, which allows the US military to use surplus transport capacity to deliver humanitarian supplies.
Anduril and General Atomics will develop their Collaborative Combat Aircraft for the Air Force, beating out Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, the service announced on April 24. But any of the non-selected companies can compete to actually manufacture the eventual design, the Air Force said.