Joint terminal attack controllers with the Indiana Air National Guard’s 113th Air Support Operations Squadron deployed for the first time as a unit to Afghanistan, announced Indiana Air Guard officials May 14. Teamed with the Army National Guard’s 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, the JTACs are part of an all-Guard presence mentoring Afghan forces in Kunduz Province in northern Afghanistan, said the officials. Based at Hulman Field near Terre Haute, each of the unit’s deployed JTACs and air liaison officers volunteered for the assignment, coordinating air support for the security force assistance team comprised of Ohio and Michigan Army Guardsmen. The 113th ASOS’ parent 181st Intelligence Wing stood up in 2006, training and equipping battlefield airmen over the last few years to bring the air support squadron up to deployment readiness. (Hulman report by Lt. Brian Weitz)
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…