In the 2007 defense authorization billed, passed by Congress late last month and now awaiting the President’s signature, lawmakers have directed the Pentagon to create a joint technology office on hypersonics to oversee all military programs and coordinate with NASA. Congress also is asking for DOD to produce a hypersonics roadmap every two years; the first is due with the 2008 budget submittal. The Air Force is very interested in hypersonics, but service and industry officials have ruled out its application as premature for the new long-range strike platform, which is to be fielded by 2018.
A federal judge recently sentenced one Airman and a former Airman to a combined 15 years in prison and ordered them to pay $1.36 million in restitution for a two-year cyber fraud scheme they perpetrated while serving on Active-Duty at Dover Air Force Base, Del.