Colorado elected officials want to know what the Air Force can do to mitigate the fact that most of the state’s Army National Guard helicopters—ones used in fighting wildfires—are being deployed to Southwest Asia. (Read a Denver Post editorial and Rocky Mountain News report.) According to the News, Sen. Ken Salazar has sent a letter to Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne asking just how quickly Colorado could expect Air Force Reserve Command to dispatch its firefighting C-130s.
Facing competition from fast-growing startups, Lockheed Martin is speeding up production of an “affordable, scalable” hypersonic glide body, dubbed the Next Generation Glide Body, the firm said in a June 24 release.