US manufacturers Boeing and Lockheed Martin announced foreign deliveries of several C-130Js to Qatar, a C-17 to the United Arab Emirates, and the first Peace Eye 737 airborne early warning and control aircraft to South Korea. The Qatari air force took delivery of a fleet of four stretched C-130Js in a roll-out ceremony Wednesday, becoming the type’s first Middle Eastern operator, announced Lockheed. Boeing delivered the first of four Peace Eye platforms to Gimhae AB, South Korea, on Sept. 21. Korean Aerospace will modify the remaining three Peace Eye aircraft in South Korea for delivery in 2012, according to a Boeing release. In addition to the delivery of UAE’s fourth C-17 from the company’s facility in Long Beach, Calif., on Monday, Boeing announced that Australia wants to purchase a sixth C-17 for its air force. The UAE will receive its two remaining C-17s on order in 2012.
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.