Lockheed Martin announced that on Monday it delivered the seventh of 14 planned C-130Js destined for the 37th Airlift Squadron at Ramstein AB, Germany. Air Force Maj. Gen. Michael Snodgrass, chief of staff at US Africa Command, accepted the aircraft at Lockheed’s production facility in Marietta, Ga. While this C-130J, like all those going to the 37th AS, will be under US Air Forces in Europe, it will also support the airlift needs of AFRICOM. Ramstein is scheduled to receive three more C-130Js by year’s end and then the remaining four aircraft in 2010. The C-130Js are replacing the squadron’s C-130Es, the last of which left Ramstein for good on Nov. 2.
Air Force Global Strike Command has fielded a new prototype system for beyond-line-of-sight communications on the B-52H Stratofortress in a step forward for modernizing the Cold War-era heavy bomber.