USAF has a group of three specialists on a petroleum and oil infrastructure team, or POInT, whose mission is to check Iraqi pipelines for leaks and work with Iraqis to secure the pipes. They also check electrical infrastructure to try to ferret out whether a problem is insurgent-related or simply Mother Nature. The airmen from the 732nd Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron at Kirkuk, ride with a US Army convoy of the 555th Combat Support Battalion for protection throughout the region around Kirkuk Air Base, where about 40 percent of Iraq’s oil resource resides.
Small satellites meant to improve the way the U.S. measures Earth’s magnetic field—an option to expand the military’s position, navigation, and timing enterprise—launched March 30 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.