An explosive ordnance disposal team from the US naval station at Yokosuka, Japan, on Wednesday detonated a World War II-era bomb discovered near the fitness center at nearby Yokota Air Base. USAF civil engineers aided the sailors, who detonated the device using plastic explosives. Workers excavating a construction site near Yokota’s fitness center had unearthed the bomb on Tuesday, prompting evacuation of the site. The bomb was packed with an estimated 110 pounds of explosive. “I want to thank all of our emergency responders and the Yokosuka EOD team for their successful efforts to defuse the situation,” said Col. Bill Knight, vice commander of Yokota’s 374th Airlift Wing. “Their skillful handling enabled an expedient and safe disposal operation,” he added. It is not clear whether the bomb was a dud dropped on the former Japanese base during World War II, or a training round buried since, reported Stars and Stripes. (Yokota release)
The Air Force will look to the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in a closed solicitation that will create the Air Force's first university-affiliated research center (UARC), Air Force leaders said. The center will study tactical autonomy. The DAF will select the center's location from one of 11…