Air Force and other US military and civilian aircraft have delivered more than 2,580,000 pounds of relief supplies to Pakistan and evacuated 8,822 people from that nation’s flooded areas, according to US State Department data released Monday. The Air Force has been flying in food, water, and medical supplies to the flood-ravaged nation since July 31. Among USAF’s activities announced Monday, a contingent of about 40 airmen from the 621st Contingency Response Wing at JB McGuire, N.J., is now in place at Pakistan Air Force Base Chaklala to help with the supplies’ distribution. Further, two C-130s and more than 40 airmen with the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing at an undisclosed air base in Southwest Asia have departed for Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan. From there, they will move relief materials into Pakistan. (State Department fact sheet) (Islamabad release) (386th AEW report by Maj. Dale Greer)
While the Pentagon is halfway through its review of the Air Force’s new Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program in the wake of “critical” cost and schedule overruns, the service has declared a similar issue for the helicopters meant to provide security and transport across those ICBM fields. The Air Force recently…