After nine years of trying, the Air Force finally has an all-weather, accurate means to perform final electronic acceptance tests of the radomes on E-3 AWACS, KC-135, and Navy E-6 TACAMO aircraft. In 1999, construction began of a compact radome range in Building 3707 at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center on the grounds of Tinker AFB, Okla. Although finished in 2000, the range suffered from a mechanical fault that prevented it from going operational. After years of dealing with industrial and academia experts to resolve the issue, USAF engineers and technicians led by the 76th Commodities Maintenance Group Process Control Improvement Division finally repaired the fault. Tinker officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony April 23, signifying the range going operational. The center also intends to use the compact range for testing B-52 radomes, but that hasn’t been approved yet. (Tinker report by Brandice J. Armstrong)
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…