Brian Arnold, vice president of strategic systems for Raytheon, said Friday at AFA’s Los Angeles Space Symposium that during the current run of successful space launches, there also have been no failures of satellites on orbit. Arnold, a retired Air Force lieutenant general who had commanded Space and Missile Systems Center, noted that space acquisition has rightly been criticized for past failures to meet cost and schedule requirements, which result in so-called Nunn-McCurdy breaches. Once the systems are operational, however, he said that they perform magnificently and often for years more than their expected design lives.
The last remaining T-1 Jayhawk at JBSA-Randolph, Texas, took its final flight to the "Boneyard" at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., on July 15. The 99th Flying Training Squadron will train pilots using T-6 and simulator until it gets T-7 Red Hawk in fiscal 2026.