One of the C-37A executive jets assigned to the 310th Airlift Squadron at MacDill AFB, Fla., along with 11 of the unit’s airmen plus contractor support staff, deployed to Afghanistan, marking the squadron’s first-ever overseas stint, said base officials. The contingent of all volunteers left MacDill in late January and is expected to spend about three months in that theater shuttling senior US military and government officials, states MacDill’s Jan. 31 release. “Since our squadron had never deployed with the C-37A, every process had to be built from scratch,” said 310th AS Commander Lt. Col. Derrick Hodges. “We had about five weeks’ notice that we were tasked to fill this slot,” he added. The MacDill airmen relieved deployed crews from the 76th AS at Ramstein AB, Germany, according to the release. (MacDill report by A1C Sarah Breer)
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.