An LC-130 Skibird takes off from Antarctica, Dec. 23, 2025. The New York Air National Guard's 109th Airlift Wing is flying the aircraft during Operation Deep Freeze in support of the National Science Foundation in Antarctica. (Gabriel Enders/U.S. Air National Guard)
The New York Air National Guard is using ski-equipped versions of Lockheed Martin’s long-serving cargo plane to collect scientific data on flights to and from Antarctica, according to the commander of the 109th Airlift Wing.
Four LC-130 Skibirds are shuttling between Christchurch, New Zealand, and McMurdo Station and other locations in Antarctica this research season, which kicked off in October and runs through February.
The wing is sending 250 airmen south to fly and maintain the aircraft during the Southern Hemisphere’s summer months, when daylight hours run around the clock in Antarctica, said wing commander Col. Steven Slosek.
The planes are flying with a specialized laser instrument that measures atmospheric gases, he told Stars and Stripes by phone Wednesday.
“It’s understanding how carbon moves from the Southern Ocean into the atmosphere,” he said.
The wing has also been supporting an upgrade to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory with flights to the South Pole, Slosek said.
The observatory, built between 2004 and 2011, is designed to observe the cosmos from deep within the South Pole ice.
A U.S. airman monitors an LC-130 Skibird as it offloads cargo at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica, Dec. 23, 2025. (Gabriel Enders/U.S. Air National Guard)
The airlifters carry about a quarter of the fuel required to power the United States’ Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station with the rest brought overland, Slosek said.
“We will offload between 18,000 and 20,000 pounds (of fuel) directly from aircraft into their fuel blivets,” he said, referring to the flexible bladders that store fuel at the research station.
Another mission for the airlifters involves flying gear back from a research camp that’s being closed on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, Slosek said.
Researchers are also collecting the oldest possible ice core records this season in Antarctica, National Science Foundation spokeswoman Cassandra Eichner said by email Dec. 22.
Operation Deep Freeze, which dates to 1955, is the logistical support the military provides to the U.S. Antarctic Program managed by the foundation.
The budget request to Congress to fund the foundation for this fiscal year dropped significantly to $3.9 billion from more than $10 billion in fiscal 2025, according to information on its website.
Significantly, funding for Antarctic research has been retained, according to Anne-Marie Brady, a political science professor at New Zealand’s Canterbury University.
China last year set up its fifth Antarctic base in the Ross Sea area not too far from McMurdo, she said by email Wednesday.
The retention of America’s Antarctic research shows that the U.S. government “understands the strategic importance of maintaining a presence in Antarctica to protect U.S. interests,” she wrote.
