As we reported Wednesday, the A-10 has flown in tests with the synthetic fuel blend that the Air Force intends to introduce fleet-wide by early next decade. Jeff Braun, director of USAF’s alternative fuels certification office, tells the Daily Report that USAF expects full certification by year’s end for the A-10 to operate with this fuel. Braun said the Air Force has cleared the F-22 and the F-4 (USAF flies QF-4 target drones) for unrestricted use of this fuel, in addition to the platforms we’ve previously reported on: B-1, B-52, C-17, and F-15. In addition to the A-10, the C-5, C-130J, F-16, KC-135, and T-38 have run on the fuel in tests and are awaiting certification. Yet to fly on it are the B-2 (expected by year’s end), T-6 and HH-60 (early next year), and RQ-4 and MQ-9 (summer 2010), said Braun.
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…