Officials at Altus AFB, Okla., this week opened the base’s new Radar Approach Control facility. It replaces a 50-year-old building that the base’s air traffic controllers had used. The RAPCON is home to the new Digital Airport Surveillance Radar, which supplants a 1970s-era radar system. The DASR is capable of interfacing with similar radar systems at other local military sites and air traffic control centers throughout southwest Oklahoma. The new facility also will help alleviate the previously overcrowded working conditions for Altus controllers, according to base officials. Ellsworth AFB, S.D., completed its transition to DASR in 2009 and RAF Lakenheath, Britain, last year became the first European installation to get the new radar technology. (Altus photo caption by A1C Christopher Toon)
Earlier this week, the People’s Republic of China confirmed it is halting its nuclear arms control talks with the U.S., in retaliation for the U.S. continuing to sell arms to Taiwan. The move reinforces a “pattern of behavior” from Beijing, experts say.