Lockheed Martin announced Tuesday that the Air Force’s first HC-130J combat rescue tanker left the company’s assembly facility in Marietta, Ga., on April 3 and is now being painted prior to enter flight testing. The company said this airframe will be presented to the Air Force during an April 19 ceremony and then delivered later in the year. The new tanker is expected to enter operations in mid-2012. Final assembly of this first HC-130J began last October.
The Air Force has spent more than two years studying cancer risks to Airmen who work with the service's intercontinental ballistic missiles. Now lawmakers in Congress are placing fresh scrutiny on the issue and have prepared legislation that would direct the service to clean silos and launch facilities.