Airmen with the 78th Logistics Readiness Squadron at Robins AFB, Ga., are working with Raytheon technicians on a three-year, $4.6 million project to replace rocket motors on some 690 AIM-120 advanced medium-range air-to-air missile. They are swapping motors from A models to B and C models because the B and C engines have a “mild defect” and they are nearing the end of their 10.5 year service life. Unlike the earlier A model, the B and C missiles are programmable so can take necessary software upgrades. The team expects to complete the first 360 missiles this fiscal year.
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…