The F-16 mechanics at Ogden Air Logistics Center in Utah no longer have to spend endless hours scraping sealant off fighter wings. Now they have a machine that blasts off the sealant using dry ice pellets, and they say it’s already paid for itself. What used to take four shifts of three to four people to do by hand, now only takes one person over four shifts. The machine cost $27,000, and based on the man-hour savings, it “was almost paid for after the first use,” says Dennis Hathaway, F-16 Wing Shop supervisor.
Some Colorado officials are seeking to distance themselves from the state’s lawsuit against the Trump administration over its decision to relocate U.S. Space Command headquarters from Colorado Springs, Colo., to Huntsville, Ala.—signaling a decreased appetite for extending the yearslong political debate that has dogged the combatant command’s future plans.
