Hanscom AFB, Mass., is serving a major hub once again this year for US Joint Forces Command’s annual coalition warrior interoperability demonstration that began yesterday and runs through June 29. Hanscom is the lead Air Force site for the two weeks of activities that brings together the US services with various civil agencies and coalition partners to investigate and assess command and control, communications, computers, and intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance technologies for potential solutions to near-term capability gaps through realistic simulations of real-world scenarios. This year Australia, Canada, and New Zealand are participating. “We fight as a joint and coalition team and interoperability is critical to our success,” said Col. Jeff Hodgdon, director of the 653rd Electronic Systems Wing’s enterprise integration division at Hanscom. He is serving as combined forces air component commander for the demo. This year’s activities feature, for the first time, one, continuous nine-day scenario with no repetition. (Hanscom report by Chuck Paone)
The Air Force has finished modifying and testing the new VC-25B Bridge aircraft that will serve as a temporary Air Force One, the service announced May 1. All that’s left now is to finish painting the jet before it starts flying this summer.