Test crews at Edwards AFB, Calif., got a little help from an Air Force team of mobile civil engineers during F-35 brake testing recently. Airmen from the 823rd Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers, out of Hurlburt Field, Fla., and the 820th RED HORSE, assigned to Nellis AFB, Nev., set up a mobile aircraft arresting system on Edward’s 12,000-foot inside runway. The braking system is designed to provide an extra layer of protection in the event of an emergency during the taxiing and brake testing. It is similar to ones used to catch aircraft landing on carriers and is made from a modified B-52 braking system. Once the F-35 brake testing is complete, the RED HORSE engineers will remove the MAAS. (Edwards release by Kenji Thuloweit)
Anduril and General Atomics will develop their Collaborative Combat Aircraft for the Air Force, beating out Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, the service announced on April 24. But any of the non-selected companies can compete to actually manufacture the eventual design, the Air Force said.