Air Force Space Command’s 50th Space Wing has deployed its Ground Mobile-3 satellite command and control operations vehicle and six airmen to Andersen AFB, Guam, aboard a C-17 airlifter. A little over two months ago, the 4th Space Operations Squadron had conducted a fit test for its GM-3 aboard a C-17, the culmination of some two years work. Prior to that, transporting the mobile satellite ops vehicle required a C-5 and cost a lot more money. The deployment marked the first overseas trip for a Milstar satellite operations crew in four years.
Bell Textron has won DARPA's contest for a no-runway, high-speed drone that will prove out technologies useful for special operations forces and possibly the Air Force's Agile Combat Employment concept. Bell's design converts a tiltrotor to a jet-powered aircraft able to fly at up to 450 knots.