A C-
17 from McChord AFB, Wash., made two passes over the South Pole on Dec. 18, airdropping 10 containerized delivery system bundles on each pass for a total of 22,372 pounds of supplies. It was the second such test of the C-17’s capability to airdrop in this “challenging” environment, said Lt. Col. Jim McGann, commander of the 304th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron at Christchurch, New Zealand. Using the C-17 for this part of the Operation Deep Freeze mission, instead of the ski-equipped LC-130s, enables the Joint Task Force-Support Forces Antarctica to deliver up to four times as much supplies in a single mission to support the National Science Foundation. (13th Air Force report by Lt. Col. Toni Kemper)
Northrop Grumman test fired its newest solid rocket motor Dec. 4, part of an internally funded effort to rapidly design and build SRMs using advanced manufacturing techniques.
