Technicians at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., are refurbishing an A-10A aircraft that they will soon convert to a remotely piloted weather research platform for the Navy, according to base officials. Until recently, the retired airframe served as a weapons loading trainer at the Arizona base. Specialists with the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group have been working to remove the A-10s weapons, military-specific equipment, and return it to flying condition. The airplane will carry sensors in place of its 30-millimeter cannon to collect data on severe thunderstorms by flying directly through the storm cells, according to a Jan. 31 Davis-Monthan release. The conversion is expected to take about a year to complete.
The Space Force on April 15 released two highly anticipated future-casting documents that describe what the service expects the space environment will look like in the year 2040 and lay out the force structure it thinks it will need to operate in that environment.