The Navy-led TacSat-4 experimental communications satellite program, under the Operationally Responsive Space joint office at Kirtland AFB, N.M., launches aboard a Minotaur IV+ booster from Kodiak, Alaska. TacSat-4’s planned one-year mission is to enable ground troops to remain in contact via legacy hand-held radios even when they are operating in difficult mountainous and urban terrain in Southwest Asia.
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.
