After nine years of trying, the Air Force finally has an all-weather, accurate means to perform final electronic acceptance tests of the radomes on E-3 AWACS, KC-135, and Navy E-6 TACAMO aircraft. In 1999, construction began of a compact radome range in Building 3707 at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center on the grounds of Tinker AFB, Okla. Although finished in 2000, the range suffered from a mechanical fault that prevented it from going operational. After years of dealing with industrial and academia experts to resolve the issue, USAF engineers and technicians led by the 76th Commodities Maintenance Group Process Control Improvement Division finally repaired the fault. Tinker officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony April 23, signifying the range going operational. The center also intends to use the compact range for testing B-52 radomes, but that hasn’t been approved yet. (Tinker report by Brandice J. Armstrong)
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…