Daily Report

May 27, 2015

SpaceX Certified for National Security Launches

The Air Force announced Tuesday evening it has certified California-based Space Exploration Technologies Corporation’s (SpaceX) Falcon 9 rocket to compete for national security space launches following an exhaustive, and sometimes bumpy, two-year certification review. “This is a very important milestone...

GPS III Launch First to be Open to Competition

The Air Force is expected to release the official request for proposals for GPS III services in June, marking the first opportunity for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle to compete against United Launch Alliances’s rockets, the service announced Tuesday. According...

Barnes Jets Escort Airliner to JFK

Alert F-15Cs scrambled to intercept a US-bound commercial flight from Paris as a precautionary measure on Monday, following an anonymous tip warning of chemical weapons aboard the aircraft, New York’s WABC News reported. “Out of an abundance of caution, Air...

US Inactivates Nepal Joint Task Force

US Pacific Command on May 26 inactivated Joint Task Force 505, which coordinating US military support for relief operations in earthquake-stricken Nepal, after nearly three weeks of operations. Assigned forces have redeployed from Kathmandu, Nepal, and Utapao Royal Thai Naval...

Rocketdyne Begins Hot Fire Testing for USAF Demonstrator

Aerojet Rocketdyne announced Tuesday it had completed the first of a series of “hot fire” tests on a key component of the US Air Force’s Hydrocarbon Boost Technology Demonstrator (HBTD) program. Over the next few months multiple injector configurations of...

Spang Pilots Train with Moroccans at African Lion

Six F-16s and crews from the 480th Fighter Squadron at Spangdahlem AB, Germany, deployed to Ben Guerir AB, Morocco, from May 15-22, to take part in joint and combined air training as part of Exercise? African Lion. The exercise is...

Farewell West Virginia Galaxies

The West Virginia Air National Guard’s final C-5A Galaxy airlifter flew to the boneyard last week, completing the 167th Airlift Wing’s conversion to the C-17 Globemaster III, unit officials announced. Lockheed Martin saluted the conclusion of a 52-year partnership with...

Buzzards Over Sweden

The Swedish government invited F-16s from Aviano AB, Italy, to take part in the multinational Arctic Challenge exercise at Kallax Air Base, near the northern city of Luleå, officials announced. A total of 12 jets and approximately 150 pilots, maintainers,...

High Northern Watch

NORAD is projecting air defense fighters to remote forward operating locations in the far north and High Arctic this week for Exercise Amalgam Dart, Canadian defense officials announced. “Amalgam Dart challenges our forces to deploy and operate in the most...