An Air Force accident investigation board has determined that Mallard ducks caused a T-38 crash on Jan. 18 some 40 miles south of Memphis, Tenn. The Commercial Dispatch reports that the ducks “shattered the cockpit canopy” of the T-38, which was on a training flight out of its home base at Columbus AFB, Miss. Both the student and instructor pilots ejected safely.
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.

