Pilots 
flying in the new cockpit that Boeing has designed for legacy C-130H transports may now use the cockpit’s head-up display and head-down primary flight display as their primary flight reference, the company announced Thursday. This comes after the displays’ endorsement by the Air Staff’s operations directorate (A3O) after a four-year period of design reviews, lab evaluations, and demonstrations. Boeing developed these displays under the C-130 Avionics Modernization Program, which entered low-rate production in June. “This endorsement means C-130 AMP pilots can now use the HUD as their sole primary flight reference, allowing them to use their head-down displays for other data,” said Mahesh Reddy, Boeing’s C-130 AMP program manager. All aircraft have a requirement for a primary flight reference that must include airspeed, altitude, and attitude data, as well as flight-path information.
A-10 Thunderbolt II attack planes in the Middle East are flying with fresh modifications as the Air Force looks to make the plane more versatile amid America’s ongoing blockade of Iranian ports and a tenuous ceasefire in the U.S. air war against Iran.