May 5, 2017
Public Affairs, Volume 64, Number 18
Raptors take out aerial targets in milestone missile tests From 412th Test Wing Public Affairs and 53rd Wing Public Affairs
F-22 Raptors from the 411th Flight Test Squadron completed developmental tests of air-to-air missiles against aerial targets April 18 at the Utah Test and Training Range as part of a major capability upgrade. The Raptors launched inert AIM-9 and AIM-120 missiles against multiple BQM-167A sub-scale aerial targets, marking a significant effort along the 3.2B developmental test and evaluation upgrade timeline. “The shots at UTRR were the graduation live fire event of a two-year long 3.2B upgrade,” said Lt. Col. Randel Gordon, 411th FLTS commander. “The achievement of those shots is a huge technical accomplishment for the 412th Test Wing and 411th FLTS.” The 3.2B modernization update to the F-22 is the fighter jet’s biggest capability upgrade since reaching Initial Operating Capability in December 2005, according to the testers. Once fielded, it will add capability boosts to U.S. Air Force air superiority and further support coalition efforts overseas. Gordon praised the coordination with the 82nd Aerial Targets Squadron, which deployed from the 53rd Weapons Evaluation Group at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida to provide the flying targets in the missile tests. The BQM-167A is a high-performance, remotely-controlled subscale aerial target used to provide a threat-representative target drone to support the Air-to-Air Weapon System Evaluation Program and other Air Force and Department of Defense air-to-air test and evaluation programs. “We deployed a group of 15 active duty members, government civilians and contractors to launch, fly and recover up to
Two F-22 Raptors from the 411th Flight Test Squadron fly above the California High Desert in this undated photo. Developmental tests of air-to-air missiles against aerial targets were completed April 18 at the Utah Test and Training Range as part of a major capability upgrade. (Photo by Chad Bellay/Lockheed Martin)
eight BQM-167A targets over three days,” said Lt. Col. Matthew Garrison, 82nd ATRS commander. “Because we are the only Air Force unit with the aerial target mission, we take our responsibility for developmental and operational flight testers very seriously, including deployments to meet them on their local ranges.” Gordon added that live-fire missile shot events at the 411th FLTS are named after 1980s’ movie action stars as an informal way to keep track of the test milestones. Because of the importance of this past test, the event was named after “the biggest action star of the 80s.” “We saved the best for last. This was the Chuck Norris shot,” said Gordon. “It was really a technically challenging shot and a graduation shot following two years of hard work. I’m deeply proud of everyone in my squadron for making this happen.”
Hack the Air Force: Do you have what it takes? By Ed Gulick Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs
The Air Force is inviting vetted computer security specialists from across the U.S. and select partner nations to do their best to hack some of its key public websites. The initiative is part of the Cyber Secure campaign sponsored by the Air Force’s chief information officer as a measure to further operationalize the domain and leverage talent from both within and outside the Defense Department. The event expands on the DOD ‘Hack the Pentagon’ bug bounty program by broadening the participation pool from U.S. citizens to include “white hat” hackers from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. “This outside approach — drawing
already aggressively conduct exercises and ‘red team’ our public facing and critical websites. But this next step throws open the doors and brings additional talent onto our cyber team,” said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein. White hat hacking and crowdsourced security concepts are industry standards that are used by small businesses and Acting Secretary of the Air Force Lisa Disbrow and Air large corporations alike to better secure Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein discuss the importance of Defense Digital Service and what their networks against malicious atit brings to the fight with Chris Lynch, the team leadtacks. Bug bounty programs offer paid er (right), and Paul Tagliamonte, a section member at bounties for all legitimate vulnerabilithe Pentagon, April 12. The DDS section is a unique ties reported. team of industry experts assisting the Air Force. (U.S. Air Force photo by Wayne A. Clark) “This is the first time the AF has opened up our networks to such a broad on the talent and expertise of our citi- scrutiny,” said Peter Kim, the Air Force zens and partner-nation citizens — in Chief Information Security Officer. “We identifying our security vulnerabilities See Hack, page 3 will help bolster our cybersecurity. We