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.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
