The Air Force has received another order from the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up a contamination site. This one is Air Force Plant 44, operated by Raytheon in Tucson, Ariz. EPA also recently directed USAF to speed up work at McGuire AFB, N.J. EPA has told the Air Force and Raytheon that within 45 days they should provide to the agency and the public “an accelerated schedule and work plan with specific dates for conducting remedial action” at Plant 44. EPA says the current extraction and treatment system at #44 “is not effectively containing the contaminated groundwater plume from the facility.” (Read the full EPA order here.)
The Pentagon's research labs are ramping up their search for munitions that can be mass-produced—an effort likely to be buoyed by billions of dollars in the department's new fiscal 2027 budget request and tens of billions in the upcoming years. While the topline information shared about the President’s defense budget…