The Air Force medical corps has fine-tuned a battlefield surgical capability—the Mobile Forward Surgical Team—that can deploy within 24-48 hours with 2,000 pounds of gear, enough to conduct 10 critical or 20 less-critical surgeries. It can be ready to operate within 15 minutes of arrival at its destination. It is not a future capability. One such team is in Southwest Asia now, working with the 379th Expeditionary Medical Group. If necessary, the five-person MFST could each carry a 70-pound backpack and several auxiliary bags and hike 10 miles to set up their field surgery. The team comprises a general surgeon, orthopedic surgeon, nurse, anesthesiologist, and an emergency physician.
RTX’s Raytheon unit was able to “significantly” extend the range of the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile using mostly software changes in experimental tests last year, expanding the reach and lethality of the standard U.S. dogfighting weapon, company officials said Sept. 15.
