Category Archives: U.S. Space Force

Already Cold F-16s and CF-18s Have a Chance to Get Colder in Greenland

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As part of NORAD’s recently completed Operation Noble Defender, Canadian CF-18s and USAF F-16s saw an expeditionary deployment from their bases in Quebec and Alaska across the Artic Circle to Pituffik Space Base (ex-Thule AB) in Greenland to operate from there for two weeks.

They were supported by assorted KC-135s, E-3s, C-150s and CH-149s.

Airmen that supported the 18th Fighter Interceptor Squadron from Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, for Operation NOBLE DEFENDER, pose for a group photo at Pittufik Space Base, Greenland, Feb. 5, 2025. Operation NOBLE DEFENDER is an air defense operation under the direction of the North American Aerospace Defense Command designed to demonstrate the command’s ability to defend the approaches of North America from current and future threats while integrating across domains with partners and allies. NORAD routinely conducts sustained, dispersed operations in defense of North America through one or all three NORAD regions, including Alaska, Canada, and the continental U.S. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Christopher Ruano)

F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft assigned to the 18th Fighter Interceptor Squadron from Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, are placed on the flightline during Operation NOBLE DEFENDER at Pittufik Space Base, Greenland, Jan. 29, 2025. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Christopher Ruano)

A CF-18 Hornet from 425 Tactical Fighter Squadron out of 3 Wing Bagotville, Quebec, and a CC-150 Polaris from 437 (T) Sqn out of 8 Wing Trenton, Ontario, deployed in support of the Canadian NORAD Region (CANR) carry out air-to-air refueling during Operation NOBLE DEFENDER on February 3rd, 2025. (Capt Rachel Brosseau)

CH-149 Cormorant from 413 Transport and Rescue Squadron out of 14 Wing Greenwood, Nova Scotia, deployed to Pituffik, Greenland, in support of the Canadian NORAD Region (CANR), ready to respond to potential distress calls from NORAD assets during Operation NOBLE DEFENDER. (Capt Andrew Birchall)

As noted by NORAD:

During the operation, local temperatures were regularly below 0 degrees Fahrenheit, with the coldest days reaching minus 29 degrees F (-34 C) and a wind chill of minus 56 degrees F (-49 C). Maintenance and Civil Engineering airmen operated tirelessly in these conditions to ensure aircrews were able to conduct flying missions.

Secret Space Plane & Aerobraking

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The tiny USAF/USSF unmanned space shuttle that has quietly been breaking records across seven lengthy deployments (up to 900 days on orbit per trip) since 2010, is set to perform some very next-level maneuvers.

Powered by Gallium Arsenide Solar Cells with lithium-ion batteries, the X-37 is just over nine feet tall and 29 feet long with a wingspan of just under 15 feet. For reference, the Space Shuttle Orbiter was 122 feet long and had a wingspan of 78 feet, making it several times larger.

The pint-sized X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, as detailed by the USSF, “will begin executing a series of novel maneuvers, called aerobraking, to change its orbit around Earth and safely dispose of its service module components in accordance with recognized standards for space debris mitigation.”

Artist rendering of the X-37B conducting an aerobraking maneuver using the drag of Earth’s atmosphere. (Courtesy graphic by Boeing Space). 241010-F-FA999-0011

This is the first time the U.S. Space Force and the X-37B have attempted to carry out this dynamic aerobraking maneuver leveraging six successful missions of operating the space plane safely, as well as decades of general lessons learned from the scientific community conducting Moon and Mars missions.

Boeing, eager to point out they can get some stuff right when it comes to off-planet ops, has released an interesting reel including depictions of releasing payloads and some of the X-37’s declassified records.

A Lot Has Changed in the Arctic Since 2019

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A force of 37 U.S. and Canadian Soldiers was tactically inserted in 50 below F weather by a ski-equipped LC-130H Hercules onto Arctic Ocean ice just east of Little Cornwallis Island in Nunavut, Canada, during exercise Guerrier Nordique 23 on March 15, 2023. Notably, almost all involved were reservists with the LC-130 coming from the New York Air National Guard’s 109th Airlift Wing– the only ski-equipped airlift squadron in U.S. service– while the soldiers were largely from the Vermont and Utah National Guard and Canadian 35th Brigade Group, 34th Canadian Brigade Group, and the Canadian Rangers. 230315-A-FN054-945

The Pentagon this week released its 2024 DOD Arctic Strategy, which is the first update to DOD’s approach to the region since 2019. A lot has changed in the region in the past half-decade, with Russia and China getting more active in the Arctic while Sweden and Finland are now NATO allies.

Note that Thule Air Base is now Pituffik Space Base, under Space Force command since 2020, and still operates the POGO station under the aegis of the 821st Space Base Group. Also note the old Shemya Air Force Base in the Aleutians is Eareckson Air Station and is primarily just a 10,000-foot emergency strip with a small group of about 100 contractors, similar to the facility at Wake Island.

“The Arctic region of the United States is critical to the defense of our homeland, the protection of U.S. national sovereignty, and the preservation of our defense treaty commitments,” said Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks. “Our Arctic strategy will guide the Department’s efforts to ensure that the Arctic remains a secure and stable region.

The 29-page document is here.

Godspeed, Gen. Stafford

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Thomas Patten Stafford was a tall Oklahoman who, born too late for WWII, nonetheless served in the Oklahoma National Guard during high school and college. Starting his undergrad career at the University of Oklahoma on a Navy ROTC scholarship, he applied to Annapolis and was accepted his sophomore year for the Class of 1952, including a summer mid cruise on the battlewagon USS Missouri.

Opting to go Air Forceon graduation, Stafford qualified on the F-86 Sabre in 1954, flying with the Cold War-era 54th FIS and 496th FIS before completing Test Pilot School and becoming an instructor.

Accepted to NASA Group Two in 1962, he would head to space with crewmate Wally Schirra in 1965 on Gemini 6A, on Gemini 9 with Eugene Cernan, and orbit the moon on Apollo 10 with Cernan and his old USS Missouri cabinmate, John Young. Perhaps most famously, he shook hands while in orbit with cosmonaut Alexei Leonov during the Apollo–-Soyuz mission in 1975.

Returning to the Air Force full-time in 1975, Stafford would command the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB and was key to the design and development of the F-117 and B-2.

Stafford retired as a lieutenant general in 1979, having flown more than 120 types of fixed-wing and rotary aircraft and three types of spacecraft, with the USAF noting the year prior that had “completed 507 hours and 43 minutes in space flight and wears the Air Force Command Pilot Astronaut Wings. He has more than 6,800 flying hours.”

Via NASA:

Today we mourn the passing of Thomas P. Stafford at the age of 93.

In December 1965, Stafford piloted Gemini VI, the first rendezvous in space, and helped develop techniques to prove the basic theory and practicality of space rendezvous.

Later he commanded Gemini IX and performed a demonstration of an early rendezvous that would be used in the Apollo lunar missions, the first optical rendezvous, and a lunar orbit abort rendezvous.

He served as the commander of the Apollo 10 ‘dress rehearsal’ mission preparing for the first Moon landing and as Apollo commander of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) mission, a joint space flight culminating in the historic first meeting in space between American Astronauts and Soviet Cosmonauts, which ended the International space race.

Throughout his career, Stafford helped us push the boundaries of what’s possible in air and space, flying more than 100 different types of aircraft.

Nuclear Winter?

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These three developments are from the Pentagon regarding the next generations of nukes.

From Monday’s DOD Contracts (emphasis mine):

Lockheed Martin Corp., King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, was awarded a $996,215,214 contract for the MK21A Reentry Vehicle (RV) program. This contract provides for conducting engineering, manufacturing, and design to provide a low technical risk and affordable RV for Sentinel. Work will be performed in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and other various locations, and is expected to be completed by Oct. 20, 2039. This contract is a sole-source acquisition. Fiscal 2024 research, development, test, and evaluation funds in the amount of $26,612,031 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting activity (FA8219-24-C-0001).

The Mk21A will carry the future W87-1 warhead, the first newly manufactured warhead added to the U.S. arsenal since the Cold War, replacing the aging W78 335–350 kiloton warhead and its Mark 12A reentry vehicle, which has been in service since the 1970s.

While it could be used on Minuteman III, it is intended for the U.S. Air Force’s future Sentinel ICBM.

This came three days after the DOD announced that the U.S. “will pursue a modern variant of the B61 nuclear gravity bomb, designated the B61-13, pending Congressional authorization and appropriation.”

The B61 has been around for a half-century, but as you can tell by the tacks it has seen numerous upgrades to keep it in service.

The B61-13 would be deliverable by modern aircraft, strengthening deterrence of adversaries and assurance of allies and partners by providing the President with additional options against certain harder and large-area military targets.

It would replace some of the B61-7s in the current nuclear stockpile and have a yield similar to the B61-7, which is higher than that of the B61-12 (which is currently almost done with a Life Extension Program that has been underway since 2013).

Flight tests at Sandia National Laboratories’ Tonopah Test Range in Nevada in March 2020 were the last in a series designed to demonstrate the refurbished B61-12’s compatibility with the U.S. Air Force’s F-15E Strike Eagle jet fighter:

The B61-13 will not increase the number of weapons in the U.S. stockpile. The number of B61-12s to be produced will be lowered by the same amount as the number of B61-13s produced.

The B-16-12 and B-61-13 will be certified for delivery on current strategic aircraft (B-2A) and dual-capable aircraft (F-15E, F-16C/D & MLU, PA-200) as well as future platforms (F-35, B-21).

Likewise, with the Russians now resumed underground nuclear testing (and folks like North Korea and Iran possibly on the cusp of similar activities), a team led by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) last week conducted a non-nuclear underground chemical explosive test in Nevada to improve the US ability to detect low-yield nuclear explosions around the world.

This experiment, conducted in the P tunnel in Area 12 of the NNSS, used chemical high-explosives and radiotracers. (NNSA)

America’s Robot Space Shuttle Returns After 908 Quiet Days

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The very low-key X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle-6 (OTV-6) returned to Earth after a 908-day sortie when the U.S. Space Force’s unmanned, reusable spaceplane, successfully deorbited and landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on 12 November at 05:22 a.m.

Photos: Boeing

Constructed by Boeing and first launched on OTV-1 in April 2010, the aircraft’s sixth mission began atop an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in May 2020 and touched down at Space Florida– the Sunshine state’s “aerospace finance and development authority”– which operates the 15,000-foot long Launch and Landing Facility, one of the longest runways in the world, for both military and commercial purposes. It is the craft’s third landing at Space Florida.

Across its first five completed missions, the X-37B spent a total of 2,865 days in orbit with this one bringing that total to 3,773 days or 10.33 space years in orbit– not a bad record for an aircraft that has only been in service for 12 years. Weigh that against the 1,323 total days in space spent during NASA’s 135 Shuttle missions between April 1981 and July 2011– that tragically cost two Orbiter crews.

Note the USAF livery. When sent to space in May 2020, it was still an Air Force project but is now considered a U.S. Space Force asset. Perhaps the aircraft will pick up a USSF logo before its seventh mission.

Powered by Gallium Arsenide Solar Cells with lithium-Ion batteries, the X-37 is just over nine feet tall over its tail and 29 feet long with a wingspan of just under 15 feet. For reference, the Space Shuttle Orbiter was 122 feet long and had a wingspan of 78 feet, making the latter several times larger.

The 11,000-pound aircraft is carried into orbit by either a United Launch Alliance Atlas V (501) or SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. By comparison, the Orbiter weighed 54,000 pounds.

As detailed by Space Force:

OTV -6 was the first mission to introduce a service module-a ring attached to the rear of the vehicle expanding the number of experiments that can be hosted during a mission. “This mission highlights the Space Force’s focus on collaboration in space exploration and expanding low-cost access to space for our partners, within and outside of the Department of the Air Force (DAF),” said Gen. Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations.

The service module successfully separated from the OTV before landing, which is a necessary activity due to the aerodynamic forces experienced by the X-37B vehicle upon re-entry. In the coming weeks, the service module will be disposed of in accordance with best practices. Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said, “The deliberate manner in which we conduct on­orbit operations-to include the service module disposal-speaks to the United States’ commitment to safe and responsible space practices, particularly as the issue of growing orbital debris threatens to impact global space operations.”

The OTV-6 mission hosted the Naval Research Laboratory’s Photovoltaic Radiofrequency Antenna Module. This experiment successfully harnessed solar rays outside of Earth’s atmosphere and aimed to transmit power to the ground in the form of radio frequency microwave energy. Additionally, the U.S. Air Force Academy’s FalconSat-8, developed in partnership with Air Force Research Laboratory, was successfully deployed in October 2021. FalconSat-8 remains in orbit, providing Academy cadets unique hands-on experience as space operators prior to entering active duty.

Multiple NASA experiments were deployed on OTV-6. The Materials Exposure and Technology Innovation in Space (METIS-2) included thermal control coatings, printed electronic materials, and candidate radiation shielding materials. METIS-1-which flew on OTV-5-consisted of similar sample plates mounted on the flight vehicle. NASA scientists will leverage data collected after the materials have spent 900+ days in orbit and compare observed effects to ground simulations, validating and improving the precision of space environment models.

Another NASA experiment aims to investigate the effect of long-duration space exposure on seeds. Scientists are interested in the seeds’ resistance and susceptibility to space environment-unique stresses, notably radiation. The seeds experiment will inform space crop production for future interplanetary missions and the establishment of permanently inhabited bases in space.