B-52s from Minot AFB, N.D., dropped a variety of precision-guided weapons during a Combat Hammer weapons system evaluation at Tyndall AFB, Fla., this week. “The exercise evaluates everything from building the bomb, to loading the bomb, to planning the sortie, to dropping the weapon, to hitting the target,” Minot scheduling boss Maj. Ryan Cox said in a releas?e. Six B-52s from the 69th Bomb Squadron dropped both laser-guided GBU-12 and GPS-guided GBU-38 weapons over the nearby Eglin Test and Training Range, Feb. 8-10. “The evaluation identifies where planners and operators might expect issues in weapons employment,” added 5th Bomb Wing staff director Maj. Mike Middents. “The evaluation also builds confidence in all personnel engaged in the event as they see how their weapons loads and flying result in effectively hitting the target,” he said. Minot’s second B-52 squadron, the 23rd BS, is slated to take part in a Combat Hammer evaluation as well, later this year.
The Space Force is playing midwife to a new ecosystem of commercial satellite constellations providing alternatives to the service’s own Global Positioning Service from much closer to the Earth, making their signals more accurate and harder to jam.
