According to Gen. Norton Schwartz, USAF Chief of Staff, Joint Task Force Unified Response turned down USAF’s proffer of a Sniper-equipped B-52 to help with Haiti relief efforts. He made the comment Wednesday at a Washington, D.C., conference to illustrate that the Air Force must be ready to employ unlikely assets in a variety of roles. The Sniper pod enables the B-52 to provide “unreal” target imagery, according to one test official. Meanwhile, the Haiti effort has employed a USAF OC-135B, known as an Open Skies aircraft and used to surveil military capabilities for treaty verifications. The OC-135B, part of the 55th Wing at Offutt AFB, Neb., staged from Andrews AFB, Md., for a 3.5-hour mission Jan. 16 over Haiti and then flew to Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, where technicians turned its film into digital images. (Andrews report by Capt. Rebecca Garcia, with Air Force Reserve Command’s 459th Air Refueling Wing)
Reports of production troubles on the SpaceX rocket that could contend for military cargo deliveries happened to coincide with a different company’s concept receiving an early nod—one that might not require a rocket at all.