Air Combat Command’s 5th Combat Communications Group at Robins AFB, Ga., hosted the fourth United Architecture, a two-week exercise in which USAF and Royal Air Force combat communicators join forces—this time in the field. Robins journalist Holly Birchfield reports that 38 5th CCG airmen and 32 airmen from RAF’s 3 Field Communications Squadron spent the last two weeks in Americus, Ga., where they put their jointly developed air operability manual to the test. Maj. Corey Ramsby, US exercise commander, said that last year the groups deployed to RAF Fairford, UK, where they “validated” techniques developed “in the lab,” but that this fourth exercise provided a “field environment, simulating a bare-base.”
The Pentagon on March 30 announced a a $3.8 billion contract modification to buy F135 engines for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter from contractor Pratt & Whitney.