Raytheon has successfully demonstrated its first captive-carry test of the new Block II version of the Joint Standoff Weapon. An F-16 flew the test out of Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., last week. The new block expands the payload options for the weapon and lowers the unit cost, according to a Raytheon statement. Future variants of the joint Navy-Air Force JSOW will be built in the Block II configuration, which includes an improved anti-jam Global Positioning System receiver. The company expects to have the Block II payload—a unitary 500-pound BLU-111 (Mk 82) warhead—ready for the JSOW-A (AGM-154A), which is used by USAF’s B-1B, B-2, B-52, F-15E, and F-16, and the Navy’s F/A-18.
Retired Brig. Gen. Lawrence Boyd Anderson, who served as vice chairman of the board of the Air Force Association—now the Air & Space Forces Association—and the last chairman of the board of the Aerospace Education Foundation, died Feb. 6. He was 89.