Volunteers at five military medical facilities across the U.S. will become part of the Phase III trial to vet biopharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine, the Pentagon announced Sept. 3. Naval Medical Center San Diego, Calif.,; Joint Base San Antonio’s Brooke Army Medical Center and Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center in Texas; Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Md.; and Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, Va., will take part. The trial is part of the push to safely create a COVID-19 vaccine by January 2021.

When it comes to telling its troops how to suit up and stay sharp-looking, the Air Force wants to make sure Airmen feel like their perspectives matter. Thus, the Department of the Air Force has created a crowdsourcing campaign that will empower Airmen and USAF civilians to share their ideas about how it can improve its uniforms, gear, and dress and appearance rules, the service announced Sept. 3. Beginning the same day, service members and civilians can submit their ideas by logging into USAF's IdeaScale platform, navigating to its homepage, and locating the “Dress and Appearance” tile there, a USAF release stated. Idea categories include grooming and appearance standards, physical training gear, maternity uniforms, and more, according to the release. Airmen may also share their thoughts on Air Force policy regarding accessories, badges, and specialty insignia.

An MQ-9 Reaper assigned to the 49th Wing at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., was damaged when it skidded off the runway on Sept. 2, the base announced. The incident remains under investigation.

Air Force B-1s and B-2s deployed to the Indo-Pacific came together to train with U.S. and Australian joint terminal attack controllers down under, dropping training bombs at three different training ranges throughout August. The B-1s, deployed to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, and B-2s deployed to Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia, made multiple passes over the Delamere, Bradshaw, and Mount Bundley training areas where Marine Rotational Force-Darwin and Australian JTACs controlled the strikes, according to a Pacific Air Forces release. The bombers were refueled by KC-135s deployed to Australia from Kadena Air Base, Japan.

Two spaceflight experiments on object tracking and atmospheric ionization won the Air Force Research Laboratory’s latest competition for promising technologies, the lab said Sept. 2. The “Precise” project and the Cislunar Highway Patrol System beat out 25 other internal proposals in a six-month bid to win further military backing. That competition, dubbed Space Warfighting Operationally Resilient Demonstrations (SWORD), will become an annual event within AFRL’s Space Vehicles Directorate. The programs must still submit their budgets, anticipated timelines, and technical objectives to the lab but are slated to begin work Oct. 1.

On March 23, the Air Force Association's Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies will host a virtual Nuclear Deterrence Series event featuring Scowcroft Group Principal Frank Miller. At a time when nuclear modernization programs are accelerating around the world, proposals to recapitalize the U.S. nuclear arsenal are at the forefront of debates over defense spending. Miller will share his insights into the prospects for U.S. nuclear modernization programs and the value of nuclear deterrence in today's competitive security environment. The think tank will post event video on its website and YouTube page after the live event.