The Arnold Engineering Development Center at Arnold AFB, Tenn., has just launched a YouTube channel showcasing videos of its work in testing various Air Force propulsion systems, aircraft designs, air vehicles, and NASA rockets in wind tunnels and static firing chambers. (Click here; please note, AEDC says the channel is not accessible from .mil computers.) This is one of the Air Force’s many initiatives to communicate its mission and highlight its activities through so-called social media Web sites. So far, AEDC says a video showing a scaled F-35 strike fighter model in the wind tunnel is the most popular clip. (Arnold report by Joel Fortner)
The Pentagon has concluded a new agreement to buy laser-guidance kits that turn rockets into drone-killing weapons. BAE Systems and the Defense Department announced a framework deal of up to seven years for 25,000 Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System guidance kits annually for the U.S. military.