A C-130J Super Hercules deployed to Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, for the first time under the banner of the newly minted 75th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron earlier this year. The 75th EAS replaces the 52nd EAS as Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa’s designated airlift support, according to a CJTF-HOA release. “We support medical evacuations, disaster relief, humanitarian and airdrop operations into fields that a lot of other aircraft can’t normally go,” said 75th EAS Commander Maj. Seth Schwesinger, who is deployed from Dyess AFB, Texas. The C-130 and airmen from Dyess’ 317th Airlift Group inaugurated the new provisional designation when an Air Force Reserve Command C-130 from Peterson AFB, Colo., handed over the rotation on May 28. “Since arriving in May we have carried over 1,000,000 pounds [of cargo] with a single aircraft,” Schwesinger told Air Force Magazine, July 10. A C-130J from Little Rock AFB, Ark., will likely relieve Dyess in September, assuming Lemonnier’s 75th EAS mantle, he said.
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.