Three Air Force crews flying B-2A Spirit bombers hit 16 out of 16 targets with live GPS-Aided Targeting System/GPS-Aided Munition (GATS/GAM) weapons during a test at the Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., range. The crews from Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., drop the 2,000-pound weapons from 41,000 feet and record 13 direct hits; three bombs record heavy damage and one is functionally damaged. The Northrop-developed GAM will serve as an interim weapon until USAF fields the new Joint Direct Attack Munition.
The Defense Innovation Unit is gearing up for the first flight of its commercially developed hypersonic testbed as soon as the end of February—part of a larger project to quickly increase the cadence of the Pentagon’s hypersonic flight testing and field advanced, high-speed systems and components at scale.
