The Air Force’s C-130 Programmed Depot Maintenance Team at Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex in Georgia has won the Defense Secretary’s 2012 Robert T. Mason Depot Maintenance Excellence Award, announced Pentagon officials on Aug. 28. The team is recognized for its outstanding work in Fiscal 2011 that improved C-130 availability despite higher operational demands on the fleet. This included slashing flow days in depot from 102 to 69, achieving 100 percent on-time delivery by the end of the fiscal year, and lowering customer-reported deficiencies by 60 percent, states the Defense Department’s release. Also announced were the recipients of the Defense Secretary’s annual field-level maintenance awards. The Air Force winners are: the 23rd Maintenance Group at Moody AFB, Ga., in the large-unit category; the 3rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at JB Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, in the medium-unit category; and the 353rd Special Operations Maintenance Squadron at Kadena AB, Japan, in the small-unit category. Pentagon officials will present these awards on Nov. 15 in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Anduril and General Atomics will develop their Collaborative Combat Aircraft for the Air Force, beating out Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, the service announced on April 24. But any of the non-selected companies can compete to actually manufacture the eventual design, the Air Force said.