Boeing announced Wednesday that has shipped the third Air Force Wideband Global Satcom spacecraft from the company’s assembly facility in Los Angeles to Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., in preparation for the satellite’s launch into space next month. “This is another great milestone for the WGS team, which is performing superbly and setting the standards for getting these critical communications assets into space and into operational use,” said Brig. Gen. Samuel Greaves, vice commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base. Boeing has said WGS-3 is slated for placement in orbit over the eastern Atlantic Ocean. It will join WGS-1 and WGS-2 that have been operational since April 2008 and August 2009, respectively. WGS-1 supports the US military in the Pacific. WGS-2, perched above the Indian Ocean, assists warfighters in the Middle East and Central Asia. (For more on WGS, read Communications Difference.)
The top Air Force commander on on the Japanese island of Okinawa has clamped down alcohol and issued a curfew for junior enlisted Airmen and Guardians at Kadena Air Base for the next month. The order came roughly two weeks after a U.S. Marine was arrested for allegedly robbing and…