Free Republic

It's the Seven Nation Army against the U.S. Air Force Reserve: the White Stripes have taken "strong insult and objection" to a recruitment ad that aired during the Super Bowl. Jack and Meg White's issue with the TV spot? They claim the music used in the commercial is a rip-off of their 2002 breakout single, "Fell in Love with a Girl." "We believe our song was re-recorded and used without permission of the White Stripes, our publishers, label or management," the band wrote in a statement posted on their official website. "We have not licensed this song to the Air...

In a flight test reminiscent of the early days of the historic X-15 program 50 years earlier, the X-51A Waverider was carried aloft for the first time over Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., Wednesday, Dec. 9 by an Air Force Flight Test Center B-52H Stratofortress. The "captive carry" test was a key milestone in preparation for the X-51 to light its supersonic combustion ramjet engine and propel the WaverRider at hypersonic speed for about 5 minutes, before plunging into the Pacific Ocean. That flight test is currently planned in about two months, said Charlie Brink, X-51A program manager with the...

Funded in part by Air Force Research Laboratory Manufacturing Technology Small Business Innovation Research contracts, FOPAT Production is producing breakthrough foam patterns for casting foundries and other manufacturers of aerospace components. The advanced patterns will improve casting processes by replacing wax, a known problematic material, with foam. Estimates indicate the development will generate $5 million in yearly energy savings, as well as $140 million in productivity, material savings, and scrap reduction. The work also supports goals of ManTech's Advanced Manufacturing Propulsion Initiative, which seeks to transform the Air Force propulsion supplier base in order both to assure industrial capability and...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Edwards Air Force Base, California Edwards Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located on the border of Kern County and Los Angeles County, California in the Antelope Valley. Edwards is home to the 412th Test Wing and is currently operated by the 95th Air Base Wing. The base is strategically situated next to Rogers Dry Lake, a desert salt pan; its hard playa surface provides a natural extension to Edwards' runways. This large landing area, combined with excellent year-round weather, makes the base a perfect site for...

Air Force Office of Scientific Research and National Science Foundation-funded professor, Dr. Xiang Zhang has demonstrated at the University of California, Berkeley the world's smallest semiconductor laser, which may have applications to the Air Force in communications, computing and bio-hazard detection. The semiconductor, called a plasmon, can focus light the size of a single protein in a space that is smaller than half its wavelength while maintaining laser-like qualities that allow it to not dissipate over time. "Proposed almost seven years ago, researchers had been unable to demonstrate a working plasmonic laser until our experiment," said Zhang. "It is an...

Dr. Chunlei Guo and his team of Air Force Research Laboratory-funded researchers from the University of Rochester are using laser light technology that will help the military create new forms of metal that may guide, attract, and repel liquids and cool small electronic devices. The researchers discovered a way to transform a shiny piece of metal into one that is pitch black, not by paint, but by using incredibly intense bursts of laser light. Dr. Guo and his team have been working on creating technology that may enable the Air Force to create an additional kind of metal. The black...

The Pentagon is participating in an interagency integrated team convened to explore how best to sustain the rocket motor industrial base — a mandate made all the more urgent given NASA’s planned cancellation of the Constellation program, according to Brett Lambert, the Defense Dept.’s industrial policy director. Each of NASA’s Ares V launchers would have required six RS-68 engines, which are common to the U.S. Air Force’s Delta IV Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV). Already, Air Force officials are seeing an uptick in the per-unit price of each EELV because procurement has slowed to keep pace with delayed satellite programs....

It is among the U.S. Air Force’s most finite resources, but the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is still growing in capabilities, and it’s an aircraft America is happy to allow an ally to use. A long-standing exchange program that has seen USAF personnel trade places with those from the Royal Air Force was extended to the B-2 in 2004. The offer to open up the secretive B-2 mission to a key ally was made by then-President George W. Bush in an e-mail to then-Prime Minister Tony Blair. Among the achievements of the first British pilot, Sqn. Ldr. David Arthurton, was...

Three USAF F-22A Raptor stealth fighter jets fly to the Nevada Test and Training Range during Red Flag, 4 February 20102000x1330 pixels, 3000x1996 pixels, via http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-200905.htm The PhotographerStaff Sgt. Erin Taylor Worley, United States Air Force   A Raptor Factoid "The F-22's manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, and the Air Force cite a 30:1 kill ratio between Raptors and their prey. That doesn't equate to one F-22 taking on dozens of enemies; the figure means that for every Raptor shot down, 30 opposing airplanes are expected to be killed. 'The F-22 was not built to fight a fair fight,' says Brenton...

Fighter jet crews from North American Aerospace Defense Command's Continental United States Region will be busy Sunday protecting the skies around Sun Life Stadium in Miami during Super Bowl XLIV. Air Force fighter jets will be airborne while enforcing the FAA's temporary flight restriction zone during the big game. "As America's air defenders, we have a total team mindset," said Air Force Maj. Gen. Garry Dean, commander of NORAD's Continental United States Region. "Special events like this world-renowned sporting event take precise coordination with all mission partners, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, FAA and...

The U.S. Navy and Air Force are beginning to work out the details of a joint battle concept given high priority in the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). “We felt the two services ought to get together and pool our capabilities against anti-access threats across a range of operations,” Rear Adm. William Burke, director of the Naval Integration Group for the QDR, told reporters Feb. 4 at the Pentagon. “We want to see if we can do things better, more efficiently and effectively.” Burke noted the two services have a range of complementary capabilities worth expanding. Synergy is “probably the...

The trend over the last several years of annual funding increases for U.S. Air Force space activity appears to be at an end, and that, coupled with the ongoing recapitalization of the service’s operational satellite fleets, means there is little money left for new development initiatives. The service’s 2011 budget request, submitted to Congress Feb. 1, scales back the Third Generation Infrared Surveillance (TGIRS) program and curbs funding for the Operationally Responsive Space Office. This follows U.S. President Barack Obama’s decision early last year to cancel the $26 billion Transformational Satellite communications system. Overall, the request includes $8 billion for...

Barksdale AFB LA (SPX) Feb 03, 2010 Air Force Global Strike Command officials here assumed responsibility for the Air Force's nuclear-capable bomber force Feb. 1. This action completes the step-by-step transfer of all Air Force long-range, nuclear-capable assets to the Air Force's newest major command. The nation's intercontinental ballistic missile force became part of Air Force Global Strike Command on Dec. 1, 2009. The command staff will gain the 8th Air Force and its three bomb wings, one each at Barksdale Air Force Base, Whiteman AFB, Mo.; and Minot AFB, N.D. Those organizations control all of the B-52 Stratofortress and...

The much-debated carrier fighter gap stretches about 100 planes wide in 2018. That is what Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the House Armed Services Committee today. That is less than half of the Navy’s estimate, given to Congress last year. The Navy has pretty much stuck with a figure of 243 aircraft or, as some lawmakers have it, 48 planes a year. OSD’s old PAE shop performed an analysis last year that concluded there was in fact no fighter gap, if you took into account capabilities beyond those planes based only on US carriers, but that study was never publicly...

I was on the far north side of a formation of eight F-15s. From my vantage point I could look south and see seven other Eagles, perfectly abreast, streaking supersonically heavenward, leaving white contrails in our wake. It’s called the “Eagle Claw”—from the ground it looks like an invisible bird of prey tearing the sky open with its talons. I was a young F-15 wingman in the opening moments of my first Red Flag exercise at Nevada’s Nellis Air Force Base. The air-to-air mission is simple in theory but extremely difficult in execution. Our job was to clear the skies...

Lockheed Martin has added all variants of the Boeing F-15 to an internal analysis of US Air Force platforms the company believes will be replaced by the F-35A Lightning II. Lockheed now predicts the F-35A will replace the F-15C/D air superiority fighter and the F-15E Strike Eagle. The USAF officially lists the F-35's conventional takeoff and landing variant as a ground-attack fighter complementing the air superiority mission, replacing only the Lockheed F-16 and the A-10. The speculative and unofficial addition of the F-15C/D and F-15E fleets allows Lockheed to claim the USAF's requirement to buy 1,763 F-35As over the next...

Defense: The administration decision to scrap a proven aircraft in favor of a supposedly cheaper, more flexible replacement is proving to be an expensive mistake. We may wind up defenseless and broke. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that was supposed to be America's frontline fighter for the foreseeable future is in big trouble. Defense Secretary Robert Gates fired the general in charge of the program this week amid concerns of spiraling costs and program delays. Gates also announced he is withholding $614 million in fees from the prime contractor, Lockheed Martin. Daniel J. Crowley, one of Lockheed Martin's project managers,...

Witches, Druids and pagans rejoice! The Air Force Academy in Colorado is about to recognize its first Wiccan prayer circle, a Stonehenge on the Rockies that will serve as an outdoor place of worship for the academy's neo-pagans. Wiccan cadets and officers on the Colorado Springs base have been convening for over a decade, but the school will officially dedicate a newly built circle of stones on about March 10, putting the outdoor sanctuary on an equal footing with the Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and Buddhist chapels on the base. "When I first arrived here, Earth-centered cadets didn't have anywhere to...

2/3/2010 - DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. (AFNS) -- A Dover Air Force Base C-5M Super Galaxy aircrew delivering over 85,000 pounds of equipment for troops supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom and was the first C-5M to land in Iraq in late January. Dover AFB officials have three C-5M aircraft that have completed the operational testing phase and are about to enter the conversion phase. "It's satisfying to get the aircraft into the fight delivering much needed supplies to the troops in the field," said Lt. Col. Mike Semo, the 709th Airlift Squadron pilot and C-5M Program Office chief. The aircraft...

Less than two years after the U.S. Air Force officially dumped its planned Cyber Command, it's scaled-back replacement, the 24th Air Force, recently officially opened for business. Over the past five years, the air force has been trying to establish a new Cyber War operation and use it to gain overall control for all Department of Defense Cyber War activities. The other services were not keen on this. That resistance, plus internal problems (losing track of nuclear weapons, cost overruns on new aircraft, inability to perform on the battlefield) led to the Cyber Command operation being scaled back to being...

Brig Gen David "Duncan" Heinz has lost his job at the F-35 program, a position he inherited only about a year ago from Maj Gen Charles Davis, who is now the commanding officer at the Air Armament Center. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is holding Heinz accountable mostly for the results of decisions made under Davis' watch, but maybe that's the way it goes. Although, to be fair, Heinz was Davis' deputy, so he's also at least partly responsible for the problems the F-35 program now faces. But it was also clear that Heinz adopted a different approach than his...

According to a recent Air Force Times article, the F-22 Raptor has the lowest pilot-retention rate of any U.S. fighter or attack aircraft measured, at a rather abysmal 33%. Compare this to 81% for F-15E Strike Eagle pilots and 68% for F-15 Eagle pilots respectively, and, gentlemen, we’ve got a problem. Think about that for a second. If those numbers are correct (and we’re not sure about them, yet), the F-15E, a much older and less-technologically-advanced aircraft, enjoys almost 2.5 times the pilot retention rate of the vaunted F-22. The article didn’t give an explanation, just the brutal facts. However,...

A test of the U.S. territorial missile defense system ended in failure because the sea-based cuing radar for the interceptor did not perform as planned, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) announced Jan. 31. The Jan. 31 test was the first of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system in which the Sea-Based X-band radar was the primary source of tracking and targeting information, MDA spokesman Rick Lehner said Feb. 1. “It was the only radar used in the test,” he said. Previous tests of the GMD system have relied primarily on other radar tracking assets, such as the very high...

Leadership: The speaker of the House wants to extend a proposed freeze on domestic programs to include defense spending. In a world of growing threats, perhaps she'd also like to cut her travel and bar bill. Last week the Russian air force celebrated the maiden flight of the Sukhoi T-50, Moscow's version of the American F-22 Raptor stealth fighter. We have shut down the F-22 production line, viewing it as an unaffordable and unnecessary extravagance. (snip) Everybody has to make a sacrifice," Pelosi was quoted as saying in an interview with Politico, shortly before Obama announced his proposed discretionary spending...

Vandenberg officials announced two days before the planned Nov. 18 launch that the missile test’s postponement would “allow for the completion of ground testing prior to launching.” However, in response to questions submitted this month, Air Force officials eventually confirmed that some of sort of problem with the weapon led to the postponement. “All that can be said at this time is that the problem was on-board the missile, and the problem is being actively analyzed,” officials said in a written statement. “Once the analysis is complete more information may be available. The analysis will focus on all aspects of...

has received $59 million from the U.S. Air Force for additional Sniper Advanced Targeting Pods (ATP). This order represents the second increment on the U.S. Air Force’s Sniper ATP Lot 9 contract, originally awarded in September 2009, bringing the total value of the Lot 9 buy to $95 million. Delivering the highest resolution imagery for precision targeting and non-traditional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, the Sniper ATP plays a major role in Air Force operations in theater, providing top cover for ground forces, as well as increasing the safety of civilian populations. “This Lot 9 increment brings total Sniper ATP sales...

It was my first T-38A night solo out of Laughlin Air Force Base in the remote west Texas desert. Since night flying as a pilot training student is already an emergency procedure by default, the instructors make the flight as basic as possible. The weather has to be almost crystal clear and the winds nearly at a dead calm. Students receive a tremendous amount of preparation training for the flight and are drilled on the game plan so thoroughly that I still remember it to this day: An instructor would take off with the solo students following him at regular...

The government watchdog group Judicial Watch obtained documents from the Air Force detailing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s use of US Air Force aircraft for Congressional Delegations (CODELs). According to the documents obtained by Judicial Watch through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the Speaker’s military travel cost the United States Air Force $2,100,744.59 over a two-year period — $101,429.14 of which was for in-flight expenses, including food and alcohol. The following are highlights from the recent release of about 2,000 documents related to Pelosi's travel: •Speaker Pelosi used Air Force aircraft to travel back to her district at an average...

Those of us in flight test at California’s Edwards Air Force Base in 1959 accused the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter production engineers of turning the designer’s drawings upside down. The wings of most aircraft employed dihedral—they were set at a slightly upward angle—but the F-104’s wings angled in the opposite direction; the horizontal stabilizer and elevator sat atop the vertical stabilizer instead of below it; and the ejection seat fired down instead of up.We could recover from the spin that resulted from the aircraft pitching up uncontrollably when it stalled,which was due to the T-tail configuration, but most pilots who used...

When there is more than $10 billion in weapons sales at stake, marketing can trump diplomacy during NATO air combat training. NATO pilots routinely participate in war games with its members, during which flights of "red team" airplanes play the opposition and square off against NATO pilots in realistic encounters. Recently, a squadron of pilots of the Spanish air force flew Eurofighter Typhoons, a multirole airplane with good dogfighting abilities, in mock combat against U.S. Air Force F-15s in the skies around Gando Air Base, Gran Canaria. The engagements, judging by a press release issued by Eurofighter, did not go...

The United States faces an evolving list of potential adversaries in the 21st century that not only continue to seek weapons of mass destruction, but are honing the skills necessary to wage battle in cyberspace as well as outer space, a panel of national security experts said Jan. 20. The nature of warfare has changed significantly since the end of the 20th century, with new technologies and threats emerging faster than ever, U.S. Air Force Gen. Robert Kehler, commander of Air Force Space Command, said during a panel discussion at the Conference on National Security Strategy and Policy here. The...

The eight-seat recreational airplane, a single-engine Gippsland Airvan, is cruising peacefully over southern Maryland on a hazy June afternoon, pilot and passengers enjoying the view from 4,000 feet, where the Nanticoke River runs into the swamplands at the edge of the Chesapeake Bay. Suddenly—whoosh! A trademark shape most of us encounter only in the movies or at airshows darts underneath the 100-knot pleasure craft, then carves a semi-circle in the sky in front of it. A voice crackles in the pilot’s headset: “This is a United States Air Force armed F-16. You are in violation of restricted airspace. Do you...

With the nation’s economy still sagging, grass-roots advocates for the new Air Force aerial refueling tankers are bucking the Pentagon with a renewed pitch: Buy from two bidders and create thousands more jobs. The team of Northrop Grumman and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. has threatened to pull out of the bidding for the tanker contract worth $35 billion, arguing that new draft specifications favor the other bidder, Boeing. So, with only about a month remaining before the Pentagon will release its final specs in the latest round of the tanker competition, officials from the states that would...

U.S. Air Force is concerned about American dependence on space satellites, particularly the GPS birds. The air force believes China is developing the ability to carry out a major attack on American military satellites. Their proposed solution is to take GPS out of orbit, and make it portable. High flying aircraft, UAVs or blimps would take over satellite communications, surveillance and navigation (GPS) chores, although for smaller areas. This would make GPS, and other satellite functions, more resilient to attack. This is part of a trend in which military satellites are getting priced out of the market by cheaper manned...

The U.S. Air Force test program for its Minuteman III ICBMs has been interrupted by a "mechanical problem" that will delay the next test seven months. The missile, selected at random from those stored in Midwest silos, was brought to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, placed in a silo there, and readied for firing into the Pacific. But during the installation of the missile in the silo, a problem was encountered. The air force won't say what exactly the problems is, or if it is something common to other Minuteman missiles. This kind of testing is not as realistic...

The U.S. Air Force has ordered 160 AGM-158 JASSM air-to-ground missiles. These will cost about $1.5 million each, and several dozen of them will be shipped off to South Korea, which expected to get them last year. JASSM has been delayed due to test failures. However, tests late last year were over 90 percent successful. That kind of good news has arrived just in time. For the last three years, the U.S. Department of Defense has been on the verge of cancelling the $6 billion JASSM cruise missile program. Lobbying, pleading, a large order from South Korea, and the growing...

Air Force strategic nuclear weapons, space-based communication and surveillance assets, and computer networks have all benefited from top-level Pentagon attention in recent years. These cornerstones of USAF’s global power have been relatively well-supported in every way. Yet there is unease about the future of these pivotal capabilities. Air Force leaders speaking at the Air Force Association’s Global Warfare Symposium in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Nov. 19 to 20, said USAF’s ability to effectively deal with nuclear threats, watch targets around the globe, and control on-orbit military systems are unmatched, but these advantages are fleeting. Some threats are obvious. For example,...

The proposed new charter for the nation’s spy satellite builder, the National Reconnaissance Office, is stuck in the Department of Defense’s general counsel’s office. The lawyers are apparently worried that the new charter may expand the agency’s powers into areas governed by the military services. Information on all this is extremely close hold but we have heard variations on this from two very well informed sources. One phrase in the statement of principles that guides the charter appears to be the issue: “overhead reconnaissance systems.” That is the key phrase in a document, called the statement of principles. It lays...

The $2-billion question in development of a new bomber is whether a major black-world demonstration program is already underway, with Northrop Grumman as the contractor. This hypothesis makes sense of a series of clues that have appeared since 2005. In that year, Scott Winship, program manager for Northrop Grumman’s X-47 unmanned combat aircraft system (UCAS), mentioned that the company—responding to a U.S. Air Force interest in a bigger version of the then-ongoing Joint UCAS project—had proposed an X-47C with very long endurance, a 10,000-lb.-plus weapon load and a 172-ft. wingspan, the same as a B-2. The idea was to match...

SEATTLE — They were mavericks of their day, taking to the skies when the nation was at war and most women were at home caring for families. At a ceremony this spring, 11 Washington state women will join the 200-some surviving Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) in receiving Congressional Gold Medals for service during World War II. Sixteen more medals will be given to local WASPs posthumously. Congressional Gold Medals have been awarded nearly 150 times since the nation was born in 1776. The women join polio-vaccine inventor Dr. Jonas Salk and poet Robert Frost, as well as two other...

Attack, not defense, will reshape electronic warfare. A magazine filled with electron pulses, information scrambling data streams and invasive algorithms may arm the Next-Generation Jammer (NGJ). By 2018, variants of the U.S. Navy’s NGJ likely will be carried by a half-dozen manned and unmanned aircraft—perhaps more. The service’s EP-X signals and communications intelligence aircraft—still without a final design or completed requirements—will be replacing the long-serving EP-3E. “EP-X is going to be the eyes and ears that find the signals” that NGJ will jam and manipulate, says Christopher Carlson, director of U.S. business development for ITT’s integrated EW systems. “Precisely identifying...

Few know everything about what is in the latest Quadrennial Defense Review and the 2011 defense budget plan, but everybody seems to know something. “There is a consensus in support of long-range strike [LRS, also referred to as next generation bomber],” a senior Pentagon scientific advisor says. Questions about whether it will be optionally manned and have a nuclear weapon capability are still undecided. Prompt global strike by ballistic missiles armed with conventional explosives appears to have one powerful advocate: Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “It’s still alive primarily because of Cartwright’s...

The Air Force must be able to operate across a spectrum of conflicts, using a myriad of warfare tools and tactics, while keeping up with advancing technologies and the ways the nation’s adversaries use them, the service’s top officer said here this week. "This demands that the United States Air Force set a clear vision of how it will move to meet emerging threats and fulfill evolving requirements," Gen. Norton A. Schwartz said Jan. 20 at the 38th Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis-Fletcher Conference on National Security, Strategy and Policy. "We must establish clear priorities for investment and yes, divestment,...

The U.S. Air Force in its 2011 budget request will announce significant changes to the Third Generation Infrared Surveillance (TGIRS) missile warning technology development program, a top service official said. TGIRS was originally conceived as a potential alternative to the long-troubled Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS), whose first dedicated satellite is almost a decade behind schedule. But as the Air Force became confident that SBIRS was finally on track, TGIRS became a technology demonstration effort that now has two main elements: an experimental sensor built by SAIC to be hosted aboard an SES Americom commercial communications satellite slated to launch...

The Air Force is spending hundreds of billions of dollars on two fighter jets that probably will never be used to support troops on the ground in Iraq or Afghanistan. Congress has decided to cap production of the F-22, removing funding for the fifth-generation fighter from the 2010 military budget. And the F-35 — also known as the Joint Strike Fighter — won’t be ready for prime time before 2013, according to the latest estimates. Critics of the new fighters say they are too expensive and not needed in today's warfare, while proponents argue that the current aircraft are not...

In the face of threats from jamming and attacks on satellites the United States must lessen its dependence on the Global Positioning System and develop alternatives to GPS, the top Air Force general said today. Gen. Norton Schwartz, Air Force Chief of Staff, told a conference organized by Tuft University’s Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis that GPS signals are particularly vulnerable in time of war since enemies know of the reliance U.S. forces place on its highly accurate signal. Everyone has read about the amazing accuracy of smart bombs and cruise missiles but few remember that those weapons depend on...

A testing delay for the F-35 program will prompt an increase in the per-unit cost of the stealthy single-engine fighter “for a period,” says the U.S. Air Force chief of staff, Gen. Norton Schwartz. Schwartz says the boost will not, however, be enough to breach requirements under the Nunn-McCurdy reporting law, which triggers a mandatory Pentagon review of alternatives and notification of Congress in cases of a significant cost and schedule overrun. The chief says the delay, which he only described as not lasting “multiple years,” was necessary. Government officials have indicated that completing testing could take up to 30...

Officials with the Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced that the remains of an Air Force pilot, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial. Maj. Russell C. Goodman of Salt Lake City, Utah, will be honored at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., home of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbird demonstration team. At the time he was lost, Major Goodman was assigned to the Thunderbirds and was flying with the U.S. Navy on an exchange program. He will be buried in Alaska at a date determined by his...

In the latest chapter of the on-again, off-again U.S. Air Force program to upgrade avionics on the C-130 airlifter fleet, service officials say the once-dead project is now funded and will move forward. The Air Force says it has not yet ironed out a procurement strategy, but industry officials suggest the program will go ahead with a competition to build kits. Last month, a contest to manufacture C-130 Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) kits was quashed. The Air Force said the “government will readdress the [issue] once a way forward for the AMP program has been determined.” This reversal was brought...

NASA and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) have successfully launched a nine-foot rocket to a height of 1,300ft using an environmentally-friendly propellant made from aluminum powder and water ice. The fuel, called ALICE, has the consistency of toothpaste with a high burn rate and achieved a maximum thrust of 650 pounds during this test. ALICE propelled the craft over Purdue University's Scholer farms in Indiana earlier this month. The fuel is safer to handle to traditional fuels and can be fitted into molds before being cooled to –30C 24 hours before flight. What has researchers excited is...