A new space materials laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., is now open for business. The Air Force Research Laboratory’s space vehicles directorate opened the $4 million Deployable Structures Laboratory (DeSel) on Oct. 29. It plans to begin testing hardware in the next few months. “We're one lab and opening our doors to different programs and projects,” Benjamin Urioste, research engineer and lead for the team that will use the lab, told Air Force Magazine Nov. 23. “Whether they are large acquisitions or small acquisitions that want to come in and have an independent government assessment of their deployable structure, our lab facility is very capable of doing that.”

The U.S. Air Force Academy has long been the training ground for cadets headed for careers in military space. But with the creation of a Space Force, the Colorado school is looking to expand the opportunities available to space-minded students. USAFA's new Space Force detachment is creating mentorship and work experience programs as it vets candidates to become second lieutenants in the new service.

The Air Force is finished evaluating the proposed “interim” fix for the KC-46’s troubled remote vision system, and is moving toward finalizing the design of the “2.0” overhaul of the system. The Air Force is more focused on the 2.0 overhaul, and “we’ve completed nearly every aspect of the design” except for how the image from the rear cameras will be projected to the operator, said Will Roper, the Air Force's acquisition boss, on Nov. 24.

The Air Force’s aerial refueling fleet could be the first platform to adopt new technologies developed under the Advanced Battle Management System effort, integrating pods complete with advanced communications and data links to feed information, along with gas, to combat aircraft as early as next year. “If we try to do podded solutions to artfully move around legacy hardware, we can move pretty quickly,” Department of the Air Force acquisition chief Will Roper told reporters. “I think that’s something we can do within a year …. I think the tech has that level of maturity. Certainly within 18 months, I think we could have these platforms as true battle nodes.”

Pacific Air Forces has studied “every single piece of concrete” across the Indo-Pacific as it looks to find new ways to forward deploy different types of aircraft in a contingency, and to solidify the service’s Agile Combat Employment concept. The command has surveyed available airstrips to see if they can host aircraft like F-22s, F-15s, and C-130s, said PACAF boss Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach. The goal for ACE is to be able to operate from an austere location with a skeleton crew of multi-capable Airmen. “We have a plan for all of those airfields, and some of them meet the criteria and they are therefore part of what we call clusters,” he said, adding that while specifics are classified, the command has identified existing airstrips that will serve as a hub to reach other “spoke” locations.

The Air Force on Nov. 25 publicly announced plans to house C-130Js at Air National Guard wings in Kentucky, Texas, West Virginia, and Georgia, pending environmental impact analyses. The tentative basing decisions were shared with Congress a day earlier, Air National Guard spokesperson Lt. Col. Devin T. Robinson told Air Force Magazine. The new tails will replace the selected wings' time-worn C-130Hs, the release added. However, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) in a Nov. 24 statement criticized the choice as unnecessarily politicizing the C-130J basing process.

More than 90 citizen-Airmen from the Kentucky Air National Guard’s 123rd Airlift Wing returned from a four-month Middle East deployment on Nov. 18, according to a wing release. The wing’s aircrews completed nearly 5,000 combat sorties, moving 15,000 people and over 10,000 tons of supplies within the U.S. Central Command region in support of Operations Inherent Resolve and Freedom’s Sentinel, the release stated.