Behind the daily close air support sorties being flown over Iraq are the personnel manning the Air Force and Army’s space team at the Combined Air Operations Center in Southwest Asia. The team collaborates to provide capabilities from operational satellites to the proper working order of the Global Positioning System devices that are key components of several weapon systems. According to Lance Blythe, US Central Command Air Forces historian, more than 4,000 GPS-guided munitions have been expended in Operation Iraqi Freedom and many of the 30-plus combat search and rescue missions were guided by space assets. Air Force journalist TSgt. William Seabrook reports that daily interactions between the CAOC and the Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., have ensured that GPS, communications, missile warning and battlespace characterization are ready to support a wide range of contingencies.
The cost of the nuclear AGM-181 Long-Range Stand Off missile has come down slightly and the program is on track, but several technologies it relies on are still considered immature, the Government Accountability Office found in a report. Meanwhile, the GAO also assessed the LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile as…