Maintainers of the 9th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron achieved the first zero discrepancy status on a U-2 Dragonlady in 13 years of flying operations at Beale AFB, Calif. “This was a 1980 model,” 9th AMXS Superintendent CMSgt. John Pinksaw said in a base release. “A 35-year-old airplane scored zero defects. Try to find that on a 35-year-old car.” The “black letter” status indicates an aircraft is free of even minor, flyable, defects and has no required upgrades or modifications pending. “When they handed me this form, I almost fell down,” Pinksaw said. “We were high-fiving, hugging, and all smiles,” SSgt. Stefan Watkins-Krukowski, dedicated crew chief of U-2 serial number 80-1067. “There was nothing that was going to bring us down that day.” The aircraft attained black-letter status July 13, according to the unit.
DNI: Cyber Is The Common Weapon Among Top Adversaries
April 17, 2021
The top four U.S. adversaries—China, Russia, Iran and North Korea—are improving their military capabilities but relying increasingly on cyber means to challenge the U.S. and blunt its influence around the world, the intelligence community's annual threat assessment says. The report comes amid military tensions with both China and Russia.