For the first time, Air Force maintenance personnel and not contractors are maintaining the service’s C-21 passenger transports operating in Southwest Asia. The change came with the standup on May 30 of the 119th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Unit at an air base in the region after the arrival of 25 airmen from the North Dakota Air National Guard’s 119th Wing on a 60-day deployment. “The contractors kept jets ready to fly at any time, and our goal is to do the same thing,” said CMSgt. Doug Faldet, NCOIC of the new maintenance unit. The Air Guard maintainers came to the war theater with C-21s from the wing. This is the Happy Hooligan’s first overseas deployment with the C-21s, after the wing gave up its F-16s in 2007, courtesy of BRAC. The 119th Wing is supposed to operate C-21s until its takes on the C-27J transport and also has acquired an unmanned aerial vehicle mission. (379th AEW report by SrA. Brok McCarthy)
RTX, parent of Raytheon, Collins and Pratt & Whitney, is getting out of the space prime business and focusing on its "strengths" as a maker of space sensors, buses, and components, company COO Chris Calio said during an earnings call.