Blackjack UAS Ready to Deploy
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 reflect opinions of the Leader’s owners or staff.
The RQ-21A Blackjack unmanned aircraft system is ready, gaining Initial Operational Capability status for deployment and use by the Navy and Marine Corps, UPI reports from Pax River.
DoD will take over storage of sensitive information and a new federal office will conduct background checks — both tasks moving out of the Office of Personnel Management in the wake of a 2014 security breach impacting millions of current and former federal employees, reports the Washington Post.
To protect sensitive information, the Pentagon asks for compliance as soon as possible, but cybersecurity guidance for 10,000 defense contractors won’t go into effect until Dec. 31, 2017, reports Bloomberg.
Snowfall of 29.2 inches shatters the previous Baltimore record for a single storm, reports the Baltimore Sun, more snow than the famed “Knickerbocker” storm of 1922 or “Snowmageddon” of 2010. As the East Coast snow tapered Sunday morning, the Kenai peninsula in south-central Alaska is hit by a magnitude-6.8 earthquake and later a 4.3 aftershock, AOL reports, no injuries.
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launched a rocket from his Texas launch facility, flew it into space, and landed it back on earth. The Christian Science Monitor report also catches readers up on NASA contracting reusable rocket making to three private companies; including Sierra Nevada Corp., which won part of a contract to deliver and return supplies to the International Space Station with a modified Russian design developed for the space race in the 1960s.
On the Asia-Pacific, three-way aircraft carrier swap, , VADM Bill Moran, the Navy manpower boss finds some sailors with pay and entitlement issues needing fixing, reports Navy Times.
A dozen F-22 Raptor stealth fighters arrive in Japan amid tensions in Northeast Asia over North Korea’s nuclear test, reports The Aviationist.
A second littoral combat ship in a month breaks down with machinery problems, this one, the Fort Worth, a Freedom-class LCS, while in-port in Singapore, reports Defense News.
