Pacific Air Forces has deployed Block 50 F-16s from the 35th Fighter Wing at Misawa AB, Japan, to Iraq, marking the first time for Block 50 Vipers to operate in Iraq, according to an Air Force release. The 14th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron now serves as a third fighter squadron assigned to Balad AB, Iraq. The Block 50 F-16s offer an improved data link, along with other advances. Misawa deployed some 250 pilots and maintainers to Balad.
The Space Force is playing midwife to a new ecosystem of commercial satellite constellations providing alternatives to the service’s own Global Positioning Service from much closer to the Earth, making their signals more accurate and harder to jam.
