Utah Test and Training Range personnel from Hill AFB, Utah, arranged the explosion of the last two Titan IV launch vehicle solid rocket motor units last week, reports the Hilltop Times. One SRMU compares in size to two sport utility vehicles and the resulting explosion could be heard for miles, while the fireball was bright red and like “looking directly into the sun,” says CMSgt. William Gurney, command chief for the Odgen Air Logistics Center at Hill. The Air Force launched its last Titan IVB in October 2005 at Vandenberg AFB, Calif.
Hickham Air Force Base in Hawaii is trialing novel energy technology to provide electrical power and hydrogen fuel in the kind of isolated and austere outposts the Air Force will need in the Pacific theater for its new Agile Combat Employment way of warfare.