Air Force Special Operations Command plans to stand up a squadron of CV-22 Ospreys at RAF Mildenhall, England, said AFSOC Commander Lt. Gen. Eric Fiel. “Probably June or July [2013], we’ll be standing up our third CV-22 squadron when the first CV-22s land at Mildenhall,” he said at the four-star forum of AFA’s Air and Space Conference in National Harbor, Md., on Sept. 19. Next summer, AFSOC also plans to replace its legacy MC-130 covert operations aircraft at Mildenhall. Shortly after the Ospreys arrive, “we’ll begin to recap our ageing MC-130 fleet, both our Talon IIs and our Combat Shadows,” by replacing them with the MC-130J Commando II, said Fiel. AFSOC hopes to introduce CV-22s into the Pacific region as well, in 2014, he added. The command originally planned to deploy CV-22s to England this year.
The Pentagon awarded a contract worth over $2 billion for the next batch of F-35 engines to Pratt & Whitney on June 5. The deal for Lot 17 F135 engines, totaling $2.02 billion, is expected to be completed by December 2025.