Graduado en 1994 en la Academia de la Fuerza Aérea de EE. UU., Falzarano había desempeñado con anterioridad el cargo de oficial ejecutivo del Comando Espacial. Según el comunicado, se cree que murió por causas naturales, pero se está llevando a cabo una investigación: "Actualmente no hay indicios de que Falzarano diera positivo por COVID-19", dijo el general John Raymond, jefe de operaciones espaciales de la Fuerza Espacial de Estados Unidos. El coronel Sam Johnson, vicecomandante del 21º Ala Espacial, asumirá las funciones de Falzarano.
A report due to Congress on March 31 recommending changes to the acquisition process and organization for Space Force programs has been completed and awaits final reviews by senior leaders before it goes to Capitol Hill. Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett is expected to sign off on the report this week.
The commander of the Space and Missile Systems CenterLt. Gen. John Thompson told last week that the acquisition recommendations are in line with the idea that space procurement programs have to be leaner and more agile: “I think it’s a bold report,” said Thompson. “I think many people across the defense industrial base and stakeholders will be very happy with this report.”
The 2020 National Defense Authorization Act directs the secretary of the Air Force to nominate an assistant secretary for space acquisition and integration to oversee all space acquisitions. Implementing this language would require the Air Force to break up the office of Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition Will Roper and create a co-equal separate office to oversee space programs. Roper has argued that it makes more sense to keep air and space acquisitions under a single authority because of the tight linkages between air and space programs. The issue of whether there should be a single acquisition executive for the Department of the Air Force or separate acquisition executives for air and space remains a sticking point in the reorganization, according to multiple sources.
Defense companies are using Additive Manufacturing more often today to build parts for weapons: Aerojet Rocketdyne is using the technology to build rocket engines, Huntington Ingalls is using it to build warships and Boeing is 3D printing parts for its commercial, defense, and space products. “In particular, rapid prototyping, along with the creation of highly specific and technical parts are orders of magnitude faster and cheaper than traditional manufacturing methods,” said a recently released RAND report.
Someday, the military will 3D-print missiles as needed, the U.S. Air Force’s acquisition chief says. In the shorter term, he just wants to use Additive Manufacturing Technology to get broken planes back in the air. The roadblock is legal, not technical: “I have airplanes right now that are waiting on parts that are taking a year and a half to deliver. A year and a half,”Will Roper, the assistant Air Force secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, said in an interview.
The Air Force is already 3D-printing niche projects whose original suppliers no longer exist. The problem is with parts whose manufacturers are still around, but which no longer make the specific item in need. Today’s 3D-printers could make short work of those deliveries, but some of those parts’ original manufacturers control the intellectual property —and so far, the service lacks clear policy for dealing with that: “The reason I can’t say we’re going to do it is we’re talking about government contracts and IP, so I have lawyers that are helping me and other contracts folks,”Roper said. “But it’s an area I’m going to stay focused because I see a way for win-win. And that doesn’t happen often in the government.”
Additive manufacturing of ceramic materials might be the key to develop future hypersonic missiles.
Ceramic materials such as Silicon OxyCarbide (SiOC) can withstand incredible temperatures.
If shaped into complex geometries, the SiOC material could be exactly what engineers are looking for: “If a material can withstand those temperatures – roughly 3,200 degrees Fahrenheit [1.760 degrees Celsius] – it could be used for hypersonic aircraft engine components like struts or flame holders,”Jamie Szmodis, a hypersonic research engineer with the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Aerospace Systems Directorate, said.
But that is only if materials like SiOC can be shaped into the complex structures needed for hypersonic flight where heat stresses are extreme. To harness the potential of the material, the Air Force is partnering with private laboratories that are pioneering novel manufacturing processes. The Air Force recently signed a Cooperative Research and Development – Material Transfer Agreement with HRL Laboratories to test its novel manufacturing processes: “The potential of the HRL-produced materials for demanding Air Force applications became apparent while Aerospace Systems Directorate scientists were searching for new thermocouple radiation shields,” reads a release from the Air Force Research Laboratory. “The SiOC materials were produced through an additive manufacturing process utilizing a pre-ceramic resin. Following part fabrication, the pre-ceramic resin was heat treated to convert the component to a fully ceramic state. AFRL scientists became interested in HRL’s novel process taking advantage of state-of-the-art 3D printing capabilities and pre-ceramic resin chemistry as well as the possible performance of the final SiOC materials at high temperatures.”
The agreement is also beneficial to HRL Laboratories, which can receive early feedback from what is likely to be its largest customer. “The extreme temperature testing that AFRL performed revealed the limits of our new material and challenged us to improve it,”Dr. Tobias Schaedler, a senior scientist from HRL, said. If the Air Force and HRL Laboratory’s collaboration pays off, they could potentially solve the biggest outstanding challenge with developing hypersonic air vehicles, which is essentially material sciences. Right now, there are no materials that can withstand the extreme heat and stress generated during hypersonic flight. 3D printed ceramics might just be the solution to that problem. Time, of course, will tell. The partnership agreement is beneficial for the Air Force because it is not just a customer but, rather, the service participates in the development process, gaining valuable expertise: “Without the material transfer agreement, we would have purchased the samples to test them. We would have been a customer, as opposed to a collaborator,”Szmodis said. “With the agreement we are able to provide test results to HRL and provide feedback that is valuable to both parties.”
La fuerza aérea israelí ha llevado a cabo un ejercicio bilateral con su homóloga griega al objeto de anticiparse a una potencial espiral de violencia en la región, que obligue al estado judío a destruir las instalaciones nucleares iraníes.
Los ejercicios han sido llevados a cabo a finales de abril, y han contemplado la posibilidad de que en un futuro no muy lejano la IAF tenga que vérselas con los temibles S-300 que presuntamente Iran va a recibir en breve.
Air Force Global Strike Command's program to improve the morale of its airmen has netted key recommendations and budgeted millions of dollars in improvements to missile wings.
More than $200 million in funding has been budgeted for the force improvement program in fiscal 2014 and 2015, with a total of $350 million in additional funding planned in the next five years.
The changes come from the outreach to airmen and include:
$10.1 million to purchase new optics and $330,000 for collapsible rifle stocks and shorter barrels for security forces airmen, who asked for upgrades to their weapons.
$1 million to improve the training course at Camp Guernsey, Wyoming. Airmen asked for improved training, which now includes more "trigger time" and a convoy course focused on training to protect missiles in transit.
$300,000 in funding for new tools and equipment for maintainers.
An unspecified amount for six new personnel authorizations per ICBM wing to stand up launch control center survivable systems team sections.
The force improvement program began earlier this year with Air Force and Defense Department officials seeking recommendations from Global Strike Command airmen at all levels following multiple high-level incidents of cheating and commander firings.
The Minuteman is no ordinary weapon: This missile can hit the enemy across the globe, as quickly as you could have a pizza delivered to your doorstep.
The “Big Sticks,” as some call the 60-foot-tall Minuteman III missiles, are just plain old. But the Air Force asserts with pride that the missile system, more than 40 years old and designed during the Cold War to counter the now-defunct Soviet Union, is safe and secure.
¿Safe and secure? Mmm... The Minuteman has indeed been updated over the years and remains ready for launch on short notice, but the items that support it have grown old. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said the Air Force will find $50 million in this year’s budget to make urgent fixes, and will invest an additional $350 million in improvements over the coming five years. Even that, she said, is unlikely to be enough and more funds will be sought.
Since its initial deployment in 1970, the Minuteman III missile itself has been upgraded in all its main components. But much of the rest of the system that keeps the weapon viable and secure has fallen on hard times. One example is the Huey helicopter fleet, which escorts road convoys that move Minuteman missiles, warheads and other key components. It also moves armed security forces into the missile fields in an emergency, even though it’s too slow, too small, too vulnerable to attack and cannot fly sufficient distances. And It’s also old: The seven Hueys flown daily at Minot were built in 1969. The yearly cost of keeping them running has more than doubled over the past four years, according to Air Force statistics – from $12.9 million in 2010 to $27.8 million last year. “Obviously we need a new helicopter, based on the mission,” said Maj. Gen. Jack Weinstein, who as commander of 20th Air Force is responsible for the operation, maintenance and security of the full fleet of Minuteman missiles.
The Air Force's nuclear missiles have stood ready for war on short notice for more than 50 years.
Americans tend to assume the missiles are safe, but ¿Do they remember they exist? Let us look, in brief, at the Minuteman III missiles and their mission
The Air Force operates just one type of land-based nuclear missile, the Minuteman III. It is a class of weapon known as an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM. The U.S. has 450 of these missiles, each with a single nuclear warhead attached. The missiles are guided to a target by a self-contained navigation system that uses motion and rotation sensors to track and update the missile's position and orientation.
Each Minuteman 3 missile is based in its own underground silo "hardened" with concrete to withstand an enemy nuclear strike. At the heart of the silo are the men and women who command the missiles. They are called missileers and are junior officers - lieutenants and captains, typically ages 22 to 27. Two missileers operate an underground launch control center, which is responsible for 10 missiles. The missileers do 24-hour "alert" shifts, then hand off to a replacement crew. Because the missiles are meant to be ready for combat on short notice, the launch capsules are manned without interruption, 365 days a year.
There are three Air Force ICBM bases: Malmstrom in Montana, F.E. Warren in Wyoming and Minot in North Dakota. Each base operates 150 missiles, divided into three squadrons of 50 missiles each. The force is commanded by a two-star general who heads the 20th Air Force. He answers to a three-star general at Air Force Global Strike Command at BarksdaleAir Force Base in Louisiana who is responsible not only for the ICBMs but also for the B-2 and B-52 bombers that have a nuclear mission as well.
Minuteman III missiles are the third generation of Minuteman missiles. The first generation went into service in October 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis. The Minuteman II became operational in 1966, and the current version was declared operational at Minot in December 1970, according to an official Air Force history of the ICBM. No ICBM has ever been launched other than for testing. The Obama administration has decided to take 50 of the 450 Minuteman 3 missiles off active duty by February 2018, but it is committed to preserving their role as part of the "triad" of strategic nuclear forces, along with bombers and nuclear-armed submarines.
Lockheed Martin is developing a software planner that integrates air operations and missile defense systems, giving the Air Force the ability to "see" and better understand dynamic global situations.
The U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center awarded Lockheed Martin a contract worth approximately $8 million to provide an air and missile defense planner that will be integrated into the U.S. Air Force Air Operations Center.
By integrating the missile defense data sources on to a common visualization platform, operators can easily generate and publish planning tactical operations documents to support creation of an area air defense plan. Lockheed Martin leveraged years of expertise gained developing air operation and missile defense systems such as the Command, Control, Battle Management & Communications (C2BMC) system, which integrates multiple standalone ballistic missile defensive weapons systems; the Theater Battle Management Core System, which plans and executes air order taskings for Air Operations Centers, and the Integrated Space Command & Control (ISC2) system which unites data from approximately 40 U.S. Air Force air, missile and space command and control systems.
The customers for this integrated air and missile defense planner are the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center located at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts and the Air Combat Command located at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia.
After a cheating scandal that led to the suspension of 34 missile launch officers overseeing nuclear weapons at Malmstrom Air Force Base, the Air Force has begun retesting the remaining crews at Malmstrom and two other bases. (Read more)
In what may be the biggest such scandal in Air Force history, 34 officers entrusted with land-based nuclear missiles have been pulled off the job for alleged involvement in a cheating ring that officials say was uncovered during a drug probe. (Read more)
The former head of the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency says the rising threats posed by Iran and North Korea justify accelerating work on a proposed East Coast missile interceptor site. “I think it’s prudent,” said Trey Obering, a retired Air Force lieutenant general, emphasizing that efforts could be expedited without risking missteps. (Read more)
