If Congressman Sam Graves has his way, the Missouri Air National Guard’s 139th Airlift Wing which operates the city-owned air control tower at Rosecrans Airport in St. Joseph, Mo., will get a new tower to train its controllers. The airport is dual-use—civilian and military—which Graves, according to KMBZ radio in Kansas City, hopes will make getting funding easier. The radio station reports that the city tried and failed to enlist FAA support for a new tower. The 139th AW is still a viable entity even though it does have to give up two of its 12 C-130 aircraft under BRAC 2005 cuts.
RTX’s Raytheon unit was able to “significantly” extend the range of the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile using mostly software changes in experimental tests last year, expanding the reach and lethality of the standard U.S. dogfighting weapon, company officials said Sept. 15.
