Air Force Space Command recently broke ground on a modernized satellite tracking station at New Boston AFS, N. H. The control station and 13-meter antenna housed in an inflatable radome will replace a 1961-vintage antenna, providing enhanced control, as well as telemetry and tracking data to USAF’s Satellite Control Network. When complete, the B-side remote tracking station block change (RBC) will be operated by New Boston’s 23rd Space Operations Squadron. Built by Honeywell Technology Solutions, the New Boston project is the seventh RBC to be completed in the AFSCN network, joining those already installed at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., RAF Oakhanger, UK, and Diego Garcia. AFSPC’s Space and Missiles Systems Center at Los Angeles AFB, Calif., is overseeing the project. The New Boston RBC is slated to be operational by January 2014. (Los Angeles report by Capt. Jessica Schroeder)
Walking the flight line occupied by Blackhawk attack helicopters and American troops on rotation at the “MK” air base in Romania, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III highlighted the important strategic value of one of NATO’s newest members Oct. 20 ahead of NATO defense ministerial meetings in Brussels Oct. 21-22.…