After eight years serving as airborne gas station attendants, an Oklahoma Air National Guard unit is getting set to take on a new, some might say, more flashy role: Flying commandos.
Instead of refueling U.S. Air Force jets in midair, the soon-to-be-renamed 137th Special Operations Wing will fly low-altitude reconnaissance missions over enemy positions and gather information to relay to U.S. soldiers and Marines on the ground.
Over the next year to 18 months, airmen will be training on a new aircraft, the MC-12W Liberty, as the unit becomes a special operations wing. The wing, which is based at Oklahoma City's Will Rogers Air National Guard Base, flew its first training sortie Monday.
The MC-12W is a modified version of the Hawker Beechcraft King Air, a turboprop similar to the state plane frequently flown in by Gov. Mary Fallin. The military aircraft, packed with sensors, cameras, communications gear and other electronics, is designed to fly medium- to low-altitude missions. It replaces the wing's old aircraft, the KC-135, a hulking tanker designed for high-altitude refueling flights.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015 ... ssion.html
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