DOD’s latest selected acquisition report (SAR) for Congress says the Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program is running seven months late, moving full rate production approval from May to December. The culprit, per the Pentagon, is the time it took to investigate the anomaly that occurred during the Delta IV demo mission last December. An independent review found the root cause of the anomaly to be fluid cavitation—bubbles—in the oxygen feed line.
Air Force depots are not typically meant for quick repair jobs, but during Operation Epic Fury, the service moved some of its stateside heavy maintenance capability forward to fix battle-damaged aircraft closer to the fight.
