Boeing delivered a third C-17 transport to the United Arab Emirates during a ceremony at the company’s final assembly facility in Long Beach, Calif. The Middle East nation has six C-17s on order. It received its first C-17 in May and the second in June. Those two aircraft “have been flying around the world in support of humanitarian missions,” stated UAE Air Force and Air Defence Col. Pilot Humaid Al Mansoori at the July 28 ceremony. He added, “The fleet’s newest airlifter is a welcome addition so that we can continue to be ready for any contingency, anywhere and anytime.” Boeing is scheduled to deliver the fourth UAE C-17 later this year and the remaining two next year. There are now 234 C-17s in service worldwide: 211 in the Air Force and 23 with international customers.(Boeing release)
The Pentagon’s new counter-drone task force will play a direct role in arming Airmen with new weapons to defend Air Force agile combat employment, or ACE, air bases in austere locations against enemy drone attacks, the director of Joint Interagency Task Force 401 said Oct. 14.
