Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh assigned Maj. Gen. Thomas Masiello to command the Air Force Research Lab at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, announced the Pentagon. Masiello has been serving since May 2011 as director of special programs in the Pentagon’s acquisition shop. He will replace Maj. Gen. William McCasland, who has led AFRL since May 2011.
The Air Force awarded a $13.08 billion contract to the Sierra Nevada Corporation on April 26 for its Survivable Airborne Operations Center aircraft, the successor to the service’s E-4B “Doomsday” plane. Like the E-4B, officially called the National Airborne Operations Center, the SAOC will be meant to withstand a nuclear attack and keep…