Air Force Special Operations Command—not the Army—will take over the bulk of the MC-12 Liberty intelligence gathering fleet, AFSOC spokeswoman Lt. Col. Kristi Beckman told the Daily Report. The 51-strong MC-12W fleet is currently divided between Air Combat Command, which operates 41 aircraft, and US Special Operations Command, which operates 10 airframes—dubbed “Javaman,” Beckman said. The Fiscal 2014 defense authorization called on the Air Force to draft a plan to “potentially transfer” its MC-12s to the Army. The plan now is for the Army to get eight airframes. USSOCOM will take the rest of the Liberty fleet, as well as its Javamen, and pass them on to AFSOC. “AFSOC will get those 33, plus an additional 10 MC-12s from USSOCOM that they currently own,” explained Beckman. “That’s a total of 43 aircraft for AFSOC,” she said. The bulk of those aircraft will be assigned to Active Duty units at Cannon AFB, N.M., and Hurlburt Field, Fla., replacing the U-28A special operations surveillance aircraft. A total of 13 will be assigned to the Air National Guard to create a new special operations mission at Will Rogers ANGB, Okla. “We will begin about a three-year transition to the MC-12 in FY ‘15 starting with the ANG Wing and finishing with the Active Duty units,” said Beckman.
The last remaining T-1 Jayhawk at JBSA-Randolph, Texas, took its final flight to the "Boneyard" at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., on July 15. The 99th Flying Training Squadron will train pilots using T-6 and simulator until it gets T-7 Red Hawk in fiscal 2026.