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Re-engining of the US Air Force's oldest Lockheed C-5 Galaxy strategic airlifters has been cancelled by the US Department of Defense after a steep increase in the project cost of the programme. The USAF's 62 C-5As will no longer be modernised under the reliability enhancement and re-engining programme (RERP), which replaces the TF39 engines with General Electric CF6-80C2s and upgrades other systems. Lockheed will still re-engine 47 newer C-5Bs and two C-5Cs operated for NASA. Including three that have already undergone avionics upgrades and re-engining to become C-5M test aircraft, this will give the USAF a total of 52 modernised...

MARIETTA, Ga., June 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The newly modernized Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT - News) C-5M Super Galaxy took to the skies for the first time today from Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Ga. This modernized C-5M safeguards the U.S. government's capability to move massive amounts of cargo as the workhorse for the U.S. Air Force global reach mission and ensures the most cost effective, viable strategic airlift resource for America through the year 2040. "This unique aircraft has provided the U.S. Air Force and our nation with an incredible capability since it first started supporting our country's strategic air...

Say Hello To The C-5M It's cheaper... more capable, and more dependable. That's what Lockheed-Martin says about the latest generation of C-5 Galaxy transports, the first of which was shown off at the company's plant in Marietta, GA this week. Lockheed reports the C-5M "Super Galaxy", a modernized version of the venerable C-5, features new engines and new avionics. Its GE CF-6 engines -- developed in the commercial sector -- are capable of 22-percent more thrust, resulting in a 30-percent shorter takeoff roll and a 38-percent faster climb to initial altitude. Perhaps even more importantly... the Super Galaxy can carry...

ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE - To about 1,000 Warner Robins Air Logistics Center workers, the vision of the future includes 112 C-5 aircraft bristling with state-of-the-art guidance, navigation and communications systems, new engines and more than 70 modifications to the airframe and subcomponents. That possibility seemed more like a pipe dream a few years ago as airlift advocates called for mothballing at least 60 C-5s - the older "A" models - in favor of buying more C-17s, the newest of the Air Force transports. But the vision seems a little less murky today, although major hurdles remain before it becomes...