A team of 28 airmen and soldiers from Joint Task Force-Bravo in Honduras spent two days providing medical care to residents of Costa Rica. • Air Force Research Lab is teaming with several contractors for ground experiments under a program called Future-responsive Access to Space Technologies, or FAST, which AFRL expects to develop mature technologies that may lead to future reusable high-speed air and space vehicles. • USAF has ceded two concept demonstration Global Hawks to NASA for Earth-monitoring research activities slated to begin in 2009. • Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tennessee has concluded altitude qualification testing on an XF7-10 engine meant to power Japan’s new maritime patrol aircraft.
B-52 Stratofortress bombers marked a new first in Operation Epic Fury when some of the BUFFs flew over Iran carrying JDAM-guided gravity bombs, according to people familiar with the matter. The development signals a weakening of Iranian air defenses and a new use for the venerable bomber in the nearly…