Air Combat Command declares initial operational capability with the RQ-4 Global Hawk Block 30 unmanned aerial vehicle. (A Northrop Grumman official on Aug. 16 announces that a Block 30 Global Hawk led the opening air strikes during Operation Odyssey Dawn in Libya.)
The Air Force awarded a $13.08 billion contract to the Sierra Nevada Corporation on April 26 for its Survivable Airborne Operations Center aircraft, the successor to the service’s E-4B “Doomsday” plane. Like the E-4B, officially called the National Airborne Operations Center, the SAOC will be meant to withstand a nuclear attack and keep…