The first MC-12W Liberty Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance aircraft have arrived at Beale AFB, Calif., their new home station, for beddown. Beale spokesman A1C Shawn Nickel told the Daily Report last week that four of the seven MC-12s expected by year’s end are already there. The first aircraft touched down on June 10. The Air Force has been using these seven MC-12s at Key Field Air National Guard Base in Meridian, Miss., for training Liberty operators. They will serve the same role at Beale. The remaining MC-12s in the 37-airframe Liberty fleet are in Southwest Asia supporting operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The start of an MC-12 presence at Beale comes amidst the backdrop of the Senate Armed Services Committee supporting a provision in next fiscal year’s defense policy bill that would transfer ownership of the MC-12 fleet to the Army (see above).
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.
