According to one technician at Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Georgia who repairs canopies and windscreens for F-15 fighters, the work is “more an art than a science.” In a report by Gene Rector of The Telegraph, Bridgette Wilderman said rocks, sand, debris, sun, humidity, a mechanic’s belt buckle, and a pilot’s helmet all can damage the canopy and windscreen—and they’re expensive to replace, so the ALC has trained technicians in the “tedious work” of sanding and polishing the acrylic cockpit enclosure. Wilderman noted that the windscreen work requires “an even finer touch” since its a prominent element of the pilot’s heads-up display. She said technicians might work on canopies for two years before “they even think about working windscreens.”
No sooner had the Defense Intelligence Agency issued its North Korean Military Power report, in which it predicted Pyongyang would resume ballistic missile tests, than North Korea did exactly that, lofting a submarine-launched ballistic missile Oct. 19. The test, in which an SLBM launched from the port of Sinpo into…