Airmen from the 23rd and 347th Operations Support Squadrons at Moody AFB, Ga., led a search and rescue interoperability exercise involving 1,500 participants at Tyndall AFB, Fla., from Nov. 1-4. The exercise included HC-130J Combat King IIs, HH-60G Pave Hawks, C-17s, A-10Cs, and E-8C JSTARS, according to a press release. The training scenario allowed rescue, maintenance, intelligence, and support airmen to practice coordination of effort in a combat rescue situation from a simulated “mobile rescue operations center” of the kind that would support a forward operating base. Specific capabilities tested were “helicopter air refueling, airdrop, infiltration, exfiltration, landing on blacked out runways, and non-traditional surveillance,” according to the release.
A new White House policy calls for the Pentagon to craft plans for additional space launch facilities to support a projected increase in launch demand that could see the U.S. supporting as many as 1,000 launches by 2030, more than a fivefold increase from 2025.