Deploy five of USAF’s metal technicians from various US home stations, arm them at Balad AB, Iraq with welding irons, drill presses and other tools, then, step back. Tapping a hefty dose of resourcefulness, the airmen of the 332nd Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron not only fix aircraft parts to keep F-16s flying, but also manufacture “must have” blast plating for bomb disposal technicians, and brackets for Army helicopter blades, reports the Red Tail Flyer. They can make workstations for radar approach and control, and fabricate parts needed for all USAF aircraft in the combat zone. “The different kinds of customers we have definitely keeps us busy,” said SrA. Daniel Lindsay, a South Dakota Air National Guardsman.
The Space Force is playing midwife to a new ecosystem of commercial satellite constellations providing alternatives to the service’s own Global Positioning Service from much closer to the Earth, making their signals more accurate and harder to jam.
