Three 
new jet-propulsion fuel tanks are expected to go operational next month at Travis AFB, Calif., increasing mission efficiency and safety at the West Coast air mobility hub. The $58 million construction project took 18 months to complete under a partnership with Kinder Morgan of Houston, a major builder of fuel pipelines and terminals. Each tank is capable of holding approximately six million gallons of JP-8 fuel, the type used by Travis’s C-5s, C-17s, and KC-10s. Previously, a 28-mile-long pipeline supplied Travis’ fuel tanks. The pipeline for the new tanks is only about a mile long, decreasing the chance of a fuel leak, according to Travis officials. The tanks’ massive size will improve mission continuity since “even if the fuel line went down, we would be able to continue the mission,” said MSgt. Scott Smith of the 60th Logistics Readiness Squadron. (Travis report by A1C Madelyn Ottem)
The Space Force awarded Northrop Grumman a $398 million contract to design and build a communications satellite prototype with advanced anti-jam and data processing capabilities. The service announced the contract for the Enhanced Protected Tactical SATCOM-Prototype program, or Enhanced PTS-P, May 15, and said the satellite will launch no sooner than…