Officials at Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom AFB, Mass., say they have replaced almost all 111 fixed-base weather sensing systems—the FMQ-19—at USAF installations around the world under a $60 million contract. These sensors, which reside at the end of runways, provide critical takeoff and landing weather data. The legacy systems being replaced required manual integration of data, but the new technology, says ESC’s Lt. Col. Andrew Terzakis, not only will provide “more accurate and reliable” data but have the potential to automatically integrate with other weather systems.
Pentagon Task Force, FAA to Test Counter-Drone Laser
March 7, 2026
The Pentagon’s counter-drone task force announced it would conduct a high-energy laser test with the Federal Aviation Administration less than a month after the use of a military counter-drone laser on the southwest border prompted the FAA to shut down the airspace over El Paso, Texas.