The Air Force Sustainment Center, one of the new set pieces of Air Force Materiel Command’s recent restructuring, will provide readiness for the Air Force at less cost, said Lt. Gen. Bruce Litchfield, the center’s commander. “We are going to be cost-effective and provide our nation the capability it needs,” he said during the annual “Tinker and the Primes” conference in Midwest City, Okla., on Aug. 17. Litchfield noted that some of the weapons systems that the center must sustain are more than 50 years old and some of them must stay in the force for another 30 years. Although his organization has no visibility on what the Air Force’s final Fiscal 2013 budget will be, he said, “we have to be ready” and “prepared for the future.” AFSC, headquartered at Tinker, includes units at Hill AFB, Utah, Robins AFB, Ga., and Scott AFB, Ill. (Tinker report by Mike W. Ray)
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.