Air Force spaceplane aims for June landing An unmanned U.S. Air Force spaceplane that has been in orbit for over a year is coming back to Earth. The Pentagon’s experimental craft, which resembles a mini space shuttle, is slated to land at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The exact date depends on weather and other…

Lockheed Martin brings in replacement workers Lockheed Martin is putting temporary workers on its Fort Worth, Texas, aircraft assembly plant to replace striking Machinists’ union members. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports the announcement came in a memo from Larry Lawson, Lockheed’s aeronautics division executive vice president. He says Lockheed must, in his words, “sustain our…

A decades-old jet fuel spill threatening Albuquerque, N.M.’s water supply could be as large as 24 million gallons, or twice the size of the oil spill from the Exxon Valdez, state environment officials acknowledged Tuesday. Officials previously estimated the spill from Kirtland Air Force Base to be about 8 million gallons. But state geologist William…

More than 1,600 museums across the country will offer free admission to active-duty military personnel and their families this summer in a program that has more than doubled in size since 2010. The expanded Blue Star Museums initiative announced Tuesday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has more than 40 museums…

Officials have identified the pilot of a military-contracted jet who was killed May 18 when his aircraft crashed into a Southern California farm field as he completed a training exercise. Fifty-seven-year-old Thomas Bennett, of Camarillo, Calif., died on impact when the privately owned Hawker Hunter jet trainer went down near Naval Base Ventura County, according…

A privately owned jet contracted by the military to play the enemy in training exercises crashed May 18 in a Southern California farm field, killing the civilian pilot, authorities said. The Hawker Hunter jet trainer went down near Naval Base Ventura County, fire department spokesman Steve Swindle said. The pilot was the only person aboard….

Army launches review of PTSD diagnoses The U.S. Army is launching a sweeping, independent review of how it evaluates and diagnoses soldiers with possible post-traumatic stress disorder following recent complaints that some PTSD diagnoses were improperly overturned. The Army says it is reviewing the diagnoses at all of its medical facilities going back to 2001….

The USS Iowa was last actively engaged in conflict in the late 1980s, helping escort reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers from the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran-Iraq war. Some 25 years later, following years of being mothballed, the 887-foot long ship that once carried President Franklin Roosevelt to a World War…

The U.S. Navy is nearing a first-time agreement to curb electricity use at its sprawling San Diego-area bases if power runs short in Southern California this summer, a deal intended to diminish the threat of blackouts while the troubled San Onofre nuclear plant remains offline. The Navy is San Diego Gas & Electric’s largest customer,…