Engineers at the Arnold Engineering Development Center on the grounds of Arnold AFB, Tenn., last month successfully test fired the 100th rocket motor in the 15-year history of the center’s J-6 large rocket motor test facility. The Feb. 11 test was meant to validate the performance and structural integrity of a Minuteman III third-stage motor built in December 2000. “We want to make sure that these motors are performing the way they should,” said Randy Quinn, an AEDC project manager. The J-6 facility was built in the early 1990s and has been used since 1994 to test Minuteman, Peacekeeper, and other rocket motors. (March 6 Arnold report by Philip Lorenz III)
Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. may have moved on from Air Force Chief of Staff to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, but he is keeping an eye on the Air Force’s effort to “re-optimize for great power competition”—and is pleased by what he sees. At a Defense Writers Group meeting March…