Air Force Reserve Command’s 919th Special Operations Wing recently received its first C-146 Wolfhound, replacing the C-145 Skytruck at Duke Field, Fla., officials announced. The unit divested the majority of its C-145s last year as part of its shift from the Aviation Foreign Internal Defense building partner competencies mission, to forward support of special operations forces with the larger Wolfhound. Maintenance personnel will use the first Wolfhound for maintenance training and procedure development, taking over from the civilian contractors who previously supported the type at Cannon AFB, N.M. “We are incorporating all of the contractor’s maintenance materials along with the factory specifications and creating not just the Air Force’s C-146 maintenance procedure, but also how to train a?irmen to do it,” said SMSgt. Jimmy Sands of the 919th Special Operations Aircraft Maintenance Squadron. Aircrew already have been training at Cannon and the wing plans to stand-up a new training squadron to complement the C-146 operational mission at Duke. The first airframe arrived on Jan. 5.
The Space Development Agency says it’s on track to issue its next batch of missile warning and tracking satellite contracts this month after those awards were delayed by the Pentagon’s decision to divert funds from the agency to pay troops during this fall’s prolonged government shutdown.
