More than 400 airmen from the 335th Fighter Squadron, an F-15E unit, and the 4th Maintenance Group departed Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C., last week on a four-month combat rotation to Bagram AB, Afghanistan. From Bagram, they will provide close air support for coalition grounds forces in Afghanistan, which is about the size of Texas. These airmen relieved a contingent of airmen from Seymour Johnson’s 336th FS. An aircrew from the 336th FS recently flew a mission that eclipsed 8,000 combat flight hours for the Air Force’s F-15E fleet. (Seymour Johnson report)
The Air Force awarded a $13.08 billion contract to the Sierra Nevada Corporation on April 26 for its Survivable Airborne Operations Center aircraft, the successor to the service’s E-4B “Doomsday” plane. Like the E-4B, officially called the National Airborne Operations Center, the SAOC will be meant to withstand a nuclear attack and keep…