Praise the Lord and Pass the Parachutes: The Pentagon’s new Unmanned Aircraft Systems Roadmap says it will take longer to prepare UASes for use in airlift operations (planned for 2025-30) than for air combat operations (predicted for 2020-25). Why? According to the report (p. 73), troops will be nervous about flying in a crew-less airplane. And foreign countries won’t like robotic aircraft landing and taking off in densely populated areas.
The Space Force awarded three contracts for rocket launches worth up to a combined $13.68 billion on April 4—and the usual players SpaceX and United Launch Alliance have got some competition in the form of newcomer Blue Origin.