Battlefield Airman Tests the Future in Binoculars: The coordination between battlefield airmen and pilots may get a boost with a new gyro-stabilized, laser-incorporating set of binoculars, called the Stabilized Portable Optical Target Tracking Receiver. The SPOTTR, recently tested during Northern Edge 2006 by TSgt. Nathan Hoffman, a joint terminal attack controller with the 354th Operations Group at Eielson AFB, Alaska, enables a battlefield airman to see where an aircraft’s targeting laser hits the ground. “I can give quick target ‘talk-ons’ to pilots, like ‘move your laser spot 100 meters east,” said Hoffman. In the current, time-consuming process, a JTAC uses terrain features to guide a pilot using a laser-guided bomb to the target.
Air Force Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost—a trailblazer and one of the first 10 women to reach a four-star rank across the U.S. military—retired and passed control of U.S. Transportation Command to Air Force Gen. Randall Reed on Oct. 4, finishing an eventful tenure at TRANSCOM.