Airmen with the 18th Civil Engineer Squadron at Kadena AB, Japan, recently taught members of the Marine Corps and Navy the Air Force way of repairing airfields. The squadron participated in an exercise May 18-19 with combat engineers from the Marine Wing Support Squadron 172 and seabees from the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 4 that focused on filling craters and making an airfield operational, according to an 18th Wing news release. During the exercise, the marines and sailors watched the airmen’s method of repairing an airfield, and then performed the repairs the same way. “The main focus is to close the gap between services,” MSgt. Steven Cordova, the 18th CES expeditionary engineering flight chief said in the release. “Right now, everyone kind of operates on their own terms and has their own way of doing things.” As of last year the Air Force’s method of repairing runways was still based on Cold War technology, but plans were in place to update the process to address new and improved threats, especially in the Pacific region. Pacific Air Forces has been deploying kits, which include large items such as rollers, dump trucks, and bulldozers, throughout the command in an effort to ensure airfields can quickly be repaired in case of an attack. The service also is updating the method for refilling holes.
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.