An Air Force MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft crashed Tuesday in southern California while flying on a test mission. USAF officials said the aircraft went down about one mile north of El Mirage Airfield in a sparsely populated area. No property damage or personal injuries were initially reported. The Reaper took off from Gray Butte Airfield, located about five miles east of El Mirage. Those airfields are midway between Palmdale and Victorville, about 15 miles south of Edwards Air Force Base. USAF will convene a board of officers to investigate the incident. (Wright-Patterson release)
The Space Force on April 15 released two highly anticipated future-casting documents that describe what the service expects the space environment will look like in the year 2040 and lay out the force structure it thinks it will need to operate in that environment.