Airmen at Ramstein AB, Germany, hosted a team of doctors from the Bulgarian Military Medical Academy for a week-long orientation of the Air Force’s aeromedical evacuation operations. The agenda “spanned the entire aeromedical evacuation process from ‘A’ to ‘Z,'” said Maj. Daniel Zablotsky, an international health specialist with US Air Forces in Europe. He added, “The Bulgarians are currently at a crucial point in developing their own organic AE capability,” so the visit enabled “valuable information cross-flow” and built “the foundation for future interoperability.” The Bulgarian doctors toured the 86th Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility and observed Ramstein’s CASF team load patients onto a C-17 transport for a flight back to the United States. The Bulgarians also learned how aircraft are configured for aeromedical evacuation. During the mid-December visit, they also toured the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and participated in an AE training flight aboard a C-130J. (Ramstein report by SSgt. Warren Spearman)
A newly-released Air Force plan to replace the C-5 and C-17 airlifters with a single airplane type called the Next-Generation Air Lifter (NGAL) will keep those fleets in service another 20 and 50 years, respectively. The plan will likely require a service life extension for the C-17 fleet.
