Technicians are replacing the entire upper-fuselage skins of a C-5C Galaxy for the first time at Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Georgia in order to address fatigue issues during regular depot maintenance. “We’ve never changed multiple skins like this,” said Jeffrey Cranford, aircraft supervisor with the depot’s 559th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron. In the past, “when we would do a segment, we’d take about a three-foot piece out, . . . but now we’re changing the entire skin,” he noted. The technicians work from a specially constructed platform running the length of the massive aircraft. Replacing the aircraft’s 20 “crown skins” takes about five months from start to finish, according to contractor Lockheed Martin, which conducts USAF’s overflow work at its facility in Palmdale, Calif. The replacement is about 95 percent complete on this first aircraft, said Robins officials. (Robins report by Jenny Gordon)
Air Force Using AI to Plan Storage for Munitions
Nov. 13, 2025
When lawmakers and outside experts turn their attention to how the U.S. military can use of artificial intelligence, they tend to focus on weapons systems—the most consequential and risk-laden use cases—and on generative AI. But behind the scenes, the Air Force is already using machine learning algorithms to help solve…
