Four different young Air Force officers get tapped three or four times each year for a four-month mission to see if they can find a vulnerability, or not, for a given space system. They employ open source information available over the Internet, at a public library, or even through a telephone call. The taskings are part of the Space Countermeasures Hands On Program, known as Space CHOP, formed in 1999 and run by one Air Force civilian engineer—John Holbrook—and two contractor consultants at Kirtland AFB, N.M. The participants usually have engineering or physical sciences backgrounds but no specific space system experience. Space CHOP, says Holbrook, is the only government group using a non-expert team to simulate open source terrorism. Its purpose is not to “replace traditional vulnerability analysis,” he asserts, but to “complement it.”
B-1 Bomber Task Force Deploys to Japan
Oct. 18, 2025
A quartet of B-1Bs from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas have landed at Misawa AB, Japan, likely for a series of exercises with Japanese, U.S. and Australian forces.
