Page 1 - Edwards AFB Desert Wings 6-12-15

Volume 62, Number 48 Serving the community of Edwards Air Force Base, California June 12, 2015

www.edwards.af.mil – www.facebook.com/edwardsairforcebase

NATO AGS to be tested at Edwards
are just certain parts that are be-
by Rebecca Amber
ing manufactured overseas by our
Staff Writer
partners over there—primarily
P A L M D A L E , C a l i f . — ground segments,” said VanBra-
Northrop Grumman’s family of bant.
high-altitude long endurance The primary industrial team in-
unmanned aircraft systems wel- cludes Airbus Defence and Space
comed its newest member June from Germany, Selex ES from It-
4. The new Alliance Ground Sur- aly, and Kongsberg from Norway.
veillance system is the first of five Representatives from each spoke
being built for NATO.
during the unveiling ceremony.
Northrop Grumman and their Project managers are hoping for
industrial partners joined com- a ferry flight to Edwards AFB late
munity leaders at the company’s this summer to complete flight
Site 3 facility at U.S. Air Force test and envelope expansion. If
Plant 42 in Palmdale for the there are no delays, “NATO 1”
NATO AGS unveiling ceremony. will be ferried to its new home
The AGS is a modified Air Force at Sigonella Air Base, Italy, by
RQ-4B Global Hawk (Block 40) spring of 2016.
that uses the same multi-platform The operational aircraft will
radar technology insertion pro- serve in a wide-area, all weather,
gram sensor.
24-hour surveillance capability to
According to John VanBrabant, provide clear pictures of any situ-
Global ISR Systems director, the ation on the ground to participat-
biggest differences are in the ing NATO countries and national
ground equipment, which is be-
ing manufactured and integrated authorities. The system is capable Air Force photograph by Rebecca Amber
overseas, and the communica- of up to 30 hours of flight at a
tions suite. time and has the ability to fuse Northrop Grumman unveiled the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance system June 4 at its Site 3 facility at U.S.
sensor data, continuously detect
“We have many of the partners and track moving objects and pro-
that we’ve used for years in the
SEE AGS, Page 7 Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, Calif.
Global Hawk program, but there
EOD, NASA take blast at the past
port shop over the years and needed to be
by Jet Fabara disposed of, the NASA shop sought out the
412th TW Public Affairs assistance of the 412th Civil Engineer Group
EOD team to dispose of these items June 8 at
How do you dispose of more than 30 years the Open Burn/Open Detonation range.
of expired explosive aircraft equipment in
less than one minute? While some may say “Today we disposed of approximately 500
“very carefully,” the real answer at Edwards pounds of NASA ordnance that they’ve been
is with the help of the Explosive Ordnance stockpiling for 30 to 50 years belonging to
Disposal Team. aircraft like the SR-71, to include some ex-
perimental planes,” said Staff Sgt. Christo-
Since a growing number of explosive ejec- pher Severe, 412th CE EOD Quality Assur-
tion seat items had been in storage at NASA’s ance Section. “They weren’t able to ship a
Armstrong Flight Research Center Life Sup-
Air Force photographs by Jet Fabara
Two 412th
Civil Engineer A combined sequence of images showing the detonation and disposal of approximately 500
Group Explosive pounds of NASA ordnance that had been stockpiled for 30 to 50 years June 8 at the Open Burn/
Ordnance Open Detonation range. The 412th Civil Engineer Group Explosive Ordnance Disposal team
Disposal used approximately 412 pounds of C-4 explosive during the detonation and disposal event.
technicians
prepare to lot of the equipment since it would cost their to look for local disposal methods and that’s
position a crate team about half a million dollars in transpor- where EOD said they could help,” added
that will contain tation. So it was far cheaper to involve us, Travis Gidner, NASA AFRC Operations
and dispose and a lot more convenient.” Life Support.
of expired
explosive aircraft “We had a lot of old ejection seat pyrocat- While Gidner noted that a lot of people
equipment during ridges and rocket engines from our aircraft usually wonder about the historic value of
a detonation and programs. The need to dispose of these items the items, he said that due to its volatile na-
disposal event started because we had some old Stanley ture, it wasn’t safe and feasible to keep the
June 8 at the YANKEE Extraction System rockets that items.
Open Burn/Open were too old to ship back to depot so we had
Detonation range. See EOD, Page 5