Dover Air Force Base’s fleet of 18 C-5M Super Galaxies are taking off on time more than ever before. During the last 24 months, the airlifters have had the highest Home-Station Logistics Departure Reliability Rate—a measurement of how often an aircraft successfully departs its home station on time—in their history, according to a May 3 release. The timeliness continued even though a majority of the C-5Ms are operating out of JB McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., due to a runway construction project underway at the Delaware base. The fleet’s HSLDR was 88.1 over the past 12 months and 87 percent over the past 24 months, according to the release. In March, there were 52 C-5M departures, but only one delay—a 98.1 percent rate. The record rates were attributed to the airmen of the 436th Maintenance Group and 512th Maintenance Group as well as the C-5M’s computer interfaces that monitor the equipment and notify those airmen of needed repairs.
The U.S. thwarted a drone attack on U.S. forces at Al Asad air base in western Iraq on April 22, marking the first time that American troops have been targeted since February, U.S. officials said. “We can confirm it was an attack on Al Asad,” a defense official told Air & Space…