The Oregon Air National Guard’s 173rd Fighter Wing at Kingsley Field, Ore., recently hosted more than 40 fighters from units in South Carolina, Arizona, Texas, and California as part of Sentry Eagle 2015, a large force dissimilar air combat training event. The exercise put participants into high-end realistic air threat scenarios where they were often outnumbered, said Maj. Victor Knill, assistant project officer for the exercise, running both defensive and offensive counter air events. Over four days, maintainers and air traffic controllers helped facilitate the launch and recovery of some 1,128 arrivals and departures at Kingsley Field, and fuels airmen pumped more than a million gallons of fuel for the exercise. The Oregon ANG also hosted an open house, welcoming the public to the base to watch sorties launching and to visit static displays and other exhibits. The next iteration of Sentry Eagle is tentatively scheduled for 2017, according to 173rd FW officials.
New approaches to testing Space Force equipment are speeding up delivery to operators, but the service needs more testers and perhaps its own space-focused test center, officials said April 1. Those are key pieces of the fledgling force’s testing methods and future moves that will keep new technology flowing into…