Boeing announced Monday that it has completed the first test flight of the third C-130 test aircraft that it has fitted with new cockpit displays and communications and navigation gear as part of the Air Force’s C-130 avionics modernization program. The two-hour flight of this test aircraft, a C-130H3 model, from Boeing’s facility in San Antonio, actually occurred on Jan. 17—three weeks ahead of schedule—according to the company, but it wasn’t announced until now. The aircraft accomplished both functional check flight and acceptance check flight tests. Boeing finished installing the new avionics gear on the H3 test aircraft late last year. The aircraft will soon join the two other test aircraft, an H2 and an H2.5 variant, in the AMP flight test program, which is already 81 percent complete, the company said. Under AMP, the Air Force intends to modify the avionics on 221 C-130 H2, H2.5, and H3 models.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
