The Air Force will save $12 million by relocating the 57th Weapons Squadron and its C-17 Weapons Instructor Course (WIC) to JB Lewis-McChord, Wash., according to a press release from Air Mobility Command. Both are currently located at JB McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., which has no dedicated C-17s assigned to support the training. As a result, aircraft and man-hours had to be repurposed to support the two five-month long courses led by the Weapons Squadron every year. McChord was selected because it has long supported the course by supplying C-17s and maintainers. New facilities for the course will be constructed at a cost of about $800,000, and the first course at McChord is planned for July 2017.
The Space Force should take bold, decisive steps—and soon—to develop the capabilities and architecture needed to support more flexible, dynamic operations in orbit and counter Chinese aggression and technological progress, according to a new report from AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
