Two Air Force C-130s and more than 65 airmen flew to Kurmitola AB, Bangladesh, to share airlift disaster-response expertise with Bangladeshi aircrews, maintainers, and load-riggers during Exercise Cope South 2012. The five-day event runs through April 26. “In our country, we practice more with paratroopers” than humanitarian cargo, explained Bangladeshi airlift commander Maj. Arman Chokldhuvy. “We want to experience how the US Air Force flies in our terrain and use it to help guide us to be safer in low-level flying during airdrops and deliveries,” he added. The C-130s are flying with a Bangladeshi An-32 cargo aircraft during the exercise drills. The US participants are from Air National Guard units in Georgia and Kentucky and Active Duty wings in Japan. (Kurmitola report by 1st Lt. Cammie Quinn)
The Air Force on March 12 awarded contract modifications worth a combined $2.4 billion to Boeing to procure an undisclosed number of E-7 Wedgetail as part of the program's engineering and manufacturing development phase and continue work on the airborne battle management aircraft’s radar.