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.)
The Department of the Air Force has identified 50 programs that will make up the core of its contribution to the Pentagon’s joint all-domain command and control effort, branding them part of the “DAF Battle Network,” according to newly-released budget documents. The DAF Battle Network programs span multiple offices and agencies…