Yokota Airmen Practice New Low-altitude Airdrop Method

Airmen with the 374th Airlift Wing at Yokota AB, Japan, have practiced the Air Force’s new low-cost, low-altitude airdrop method for the first time with their C-130s at the nearby Fuji Drop Zone. These two days of training helped prepare the C-130 aircrews of the wing’s 36th Airlift Squadron to employ this technique during future deployments to Afghanistan or during humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions in the Pacific theater. Lt. Col. Brian Porter, 374th Operational Support Squadron director of operations, said Yokota’s C-130s could also apply LCLA when they airdrop supplies to the indigenous peoples of the Micronesian islands as part of the annual Operation Christmas Drop. The Air Force adopted the LCLA method in March. Air mobility officials developed it to resupply ground troops operating from small-sized forward bases in Afghanistan. (Yokota report by A1C Katrina R. Menchaca)