Air National Guard C-130s equipped to drop up to 2,700 gallons of fire retardant or water have deployed from the 145th Airlift Wing in North Carolina to Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico to set up camp in case they are needed to fight fires as needed. It’s the start of another fire season. ANG and Air Force Reserve Command airmen and their aircraft equipped with the Modular Airborne Firefighting System deploy throughout the season usually for about 30 days at a time, according to ANG Lt. Col. Rick Gibson, MAFFS liaison. They are on call to respond to local, state, and federal calls for assistance. Gibson predicts a higher use rate this season since there are fewer civilian fire tankers available and fire danger is high.
Australia’s military will help the Pentagon pursue so-called “air-breathing” hypersonic weapons and more under the U.S.-run Allied Prototyping Initiative, the U.S. Defense Department said Nov. 30. The Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment (SCIFiRE) initiative “will be essential to the future of hypersonic research and development, ensuring the U.S. and…