Lockheed Martin delivered the first of the Iraqi air force’s C-130J transports earlier this week, announced the company. Staff Lt. Gen. Anwer Hamad Amen, Iraqi air force commander, accepted one of the first three C-130Js that Lockheed Martin is supplying this year during a Dec. 12 handover ceremony at the company’s production facility in Marietta, Ga. The two other airframes took off for Iraq on the previous day, according to the company. Iraq has ordered a total of six C-130Js to reconstitute its intratheater airlift capability. Iraq’s final three airframes are slated for delivery in 2013, states the company’s release. The initial cadre of Iraqi C-130 pilots and maintainers has been training with the Rhode Island Air National Guard’s 143rd Airlift Wing at Quonset Point ANGS, R.I., over the past few months. (See also entry from Lockheed Martin’s Code One Magazine.)
In the wake of a major Chinese military shakeup, the head of U.S. Space Command warned of China’s “breathtakingly fast” advances in space during visits to Japan and South Korea. Gen. Stephen N. Whiting’s trip to the Indo-Pacific is his first overseas visit since taking command of SPACECOM in January.