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Army, and community and industry partners last week celebrated the opening at Robins AFB, Ga., of a $1.8 million training center that will serve, at least for now, as home to C-27J aircrew training in place of the previous interim site in Waco, Tex. On that same day, Dec. 9, the first class of airmen who will operate the new airlifter for the Air National Guard graduated from the new schoolhouse. Housed in the Air Guard’s former B-1B bomber building, the center offers classroom instruction and will feature a full-fidelity operational flight trainer, and a fuselage trainer, when fully equipped in 2011, said L-3 Communications, lead C-27J contractor, in a release. During the next two years, 24 pilots and 24 loadmasters are expected to graduate from the schoolhouse annually. At peak levels in about five years, 144 airmen will pass through it each year. Continue
A top Pentagon tech official called on industry this week to help the military develop “lighter, more efficient” directed energy weapons designed to go on aircraft and conduct special operations missions or down drones—areas where the Air Force’s directed energy efforts have been quiet as of late.