K-MAX Crash Details
Morning Coffee is a robust blend of links to news around the internet concerning the Naval Air Station Patuxent River economic community. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the Leader’s owners or staff.
A report on last year’s crash of an unmanned K-MAX helicopter in Afghanistan was recently released to the Washington Post as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request. The report determined that the crash was preventable and occurred because the pilots did not react quickly enough when the chopper experienced unexpected wind. Investigators concluded that personnel on the ground should have provided an updated weather report and warned the pilots that the K-MAX was out of control.
Frank Kendall, top DoD weapon buyer, believes that for years the US has been complacent and assumed its military will be better equipped than any enemy, but that’s increasingly in doubt, according to Breaking Defense. “Our technological superiority is very much at risk, there are people designing systems [specifically] to defeat us in a very thoughtful and strategic way, and we’ve got to wake up, frankly,” said Mr. Kendall.
The Navy and NASA completed a second round of practice recoveries of the Orion spacecraft, which is designed to bring humans to the moon, asteroids and eventually to Mars, reports Chron. The tests took place in the Pacific where the unmanned Orion will splash down December after reaching an altitude of 3,600 miles.
Aviation Week provides a first person account on the CVN 76 Ronald Reagan running nighttime F/A-18 air ops in the middle of the Pacific during the Rim of Pacific exercises.
Luke AFB is investing $110 million in construction to become the world’s largest pilot-training base for F-35 fighter jets, according to azcentral. Luke is projected to host six squadrons made up of 24 F-35s each, for a combined total of 144 of the supersonic planes.
RADM David Lewis took command of the Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) on Friday, reports C4ISR&Networks. He was most recently Program Executive Officer, Ships, where he was responsible for building surface combatants, amphibious ships, logistics support ships, support craft and related foreign military sales.
Trey Mangan, received the 2013 National Defense Industrial Association’s USMC Contractor Tester of the Year Award, according to the Fort Hood Herald. Mr. Mangan is a subject matter expert on the F-35 Lightning II program and was recognized for his work as the lead for short takeoff and vertical landing testing of the F-35B which took place at NAS Pax River.
A Veterans Affairs (VA) exec said that long wait times for veterans to get health care can be cleared up in two years, along with investigations of employees accused of falsifying data to hide the problem, reports the AP. The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America launched a survey to gather information about veterans’ experiences with the troubled VA, according to the Washington Post.
