Air Force and Navy elements on Guam joined forces for a week’s worth of sea mine planting earlier this month. Aircrews flying B-52 bombers deployed to Andersen AFB, Guam, dropped 92 Mk 62 and four Mk 56 mines over the course of 10 sorties. Senior Chief Petty Officer John Pipkin with the Navy’s Mobile Mine Assembly Unit 8 on Guam explained that the mines provide both defensive deterrent and offensive strike capability and added, “When we need to lay a lot of mines quickly, bombers are the platform of choice.”
A new think tank analysis finds a hypothetical blended-wing body tanker could offer twice as much refueling performance as the KC-46A Pegasus and recommends the Air Force buy scores of them, as the service prepares to evaluate a BWB demonstrator next year and must juggle its future tanker plans with…