C-21 crews testing electronic tablets Published July 10, 2013 By Senior Airman Divine Cox 375th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- C-21 aircrews received 12 iPad minis in February to be used as electronic flight bags. This is a part of Air Mobility Command's effort to reduce paper waste and costs by replacing 40-50 pounds of paper-based reference material with the electronic tablets. Maj. Jared Detloff, 375th Operations Group standardization evaluation chief, said, "Believe it or not, we volunteered to be the testing squadron for this project." More than a year ago, Air Mobility Command was awarded a contract for more than $9 million to purchase up to 18,000 iPads. "I got excited when I heard that the Air Force was testing the electronic flight bag," said Detloff. "The commercial airlines switched from paper based a little while ago. It's about time we use this great technology." Moving from a paper-based system to an electronically-based system helps flight crews perform flight management tasks more efficiently with less paper, and saves the DoD significant time and money. The DoD spends an average of $20 million for the paper based reference material. "The Air Force is big on saving money right now," said Detloff. "This is a great opportunity to do so. Not only does it save money on the flight bag, but it also saves money on fuel as well. The more weight a plane has to carry, the more fuel it burns." Detloff said if everything goes as planned the testing phase could become operational as early as the fall.