Lt. Gen. Harry Wyatt, Air National Guard director, told lawmakers last week that the new Mobility Capabilities and Requirements Study is essentially OBE on tactical airlift needs. Wyatt told the House Appropriations defense panel that the MCRS did not consider the Air Force’s newly acquired direct support mission when it said USAF only needed about 335 of its total 401 C-130s. Armed with that data and facing budget pressures, USAF planned to restructure its C-130 fleet—retiring some and shifting some reserve aircraft to the active force, much to Congressional dismay. Wyatt also noted that the C-27J portion of the equation is still unresolved, with a requirement for 78 but a DOD plan to purchase only 38 and fill in with C-130s. And, said Wyatt, there’s a homegrown need. He concluded, “There’s probably a greater need for tactical airlift than the MCRS has identified.” (Wyatt’s written testimony)
RTX’s Raytheon unit was able to “significantly” extend the range of the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile using mostly software changes in experimental tests last year, expanding the reach and lethality of the standard U.S. dogfighting weapon, company officials said Sept. 15.
