By Debbie Gregory.

Bladder relief systems are important to fighter pilots, especially female pilots, who fly aircraft for many hours. Omni Medical Systems is working with the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Human Systems Division to update and improve bladder relief systems.

AMXDma, the Aircrew Mission Extender Device started delivering over 600 devices to the field operations and another 1,500 are scheduled for delivery over the next six months. The new devices are hands-free, battery-operated and worn underneath uniforms. These devices collect urine in a cup for males, a pad for females and pumps the urine into a collection bag. The device detects urine in one second and embeds it with special sensors then pumps it into the collection bag which holds 1.7 quarts of urine.

Did you know that Urinary Relief Devices are the number one priority of female air crews for mission equipment? These devices are a huge improvement over what the crews are currently using too with a longer battery life, the ability to hold more urine, better pads and cups, and more anatomically accurate.

Updated technology can save lives because pilots can focus on their flight missions. Better devices also stop pilots from practicing “tactical dehydration” which can be a fatal error and limits their water intake and urine output during a flight. Dehydration can fatally impact G-tolerance situational awareness and decision-making ability for pilots flying fighter jets. AMXDmax allows pilots to properly hydrate and relieve their bladder midflight without interruption of the mission.

By Debbie Gregory.

Santa Claus is about to making his sleigh ride delivering toys for good boys and girls. In addition to his trusty reindeer led by Rudolph, Santa will have back up from NORAD, North American Aerospace Defense Command with United States military satellites and sensors watching over him and monitoring the flight as well as providing Santa jet fighter escorts including F-15 Eagles, F-16 Fighting Falcons, F-22 Raptors and even Canadian CF-18s.

NORAD is well-known for its ability to track Santa,” said Air Force Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy, NORAD’s commander. NORAD has been tracking and helping Santa for 60 years. Did you know that NORAD’s integrated ground & space systems are so powerful, they can even detect the red glow from Rudolph’s nose and the metal that makes up Santa’s sleigh.

This year, more than 1,250 volunteers in the NORAD Tracks Santa call center will serve two-hour shifts and provide updates on social media and by telephone in as many as eight languages, the service said.

While tons of help will boost Santa’s trip from below, it was not immediately clear if Santa will receive a prolonged fighter jet escort on Christmas Eve. Still, the “operational feel” was meant to give U.S. adversaries — most notably, Russia — a clear message: Don’t mess with Santa.

NORAD will be posting to social media, tweeting, answering the phones and responding to emails. The call center will be open for 24 hours, starting at 5 a.m. Eastern Time on December 24.

Santa’s preparations and journey will be followed in real time starting Christmas Eve on a special holiday website. It’s already up and running with a holiday countdown clock, games, movies, daily activities, and music. Children of all ages can dial the toll-free number, 1-877-446-6723, to get a moment-by-moment update.

By Debbie Gregory.

In preparation for the arrival of U.S. F-35A Lightning II stealth jets, the British government has awarded a $205 million contract for construction work at Royal Air Force (RAF) Lakenheath to build the the military jet. Although the base is an RAF station, it hosts United States Air Force units and personnel.

The contract, a joint venture with Kier-VolkerFitzpatrick, is part of a larger program to support Air Force operations in the U.K., with a further $1 billion expected to be in invested in the U.K. over the next seven to 10 years.

The Suffolk County airbase will be the first permanent international site for US Air Force F-35s in Europe and continues the base’s long history of supporting U.S. Air Force capability in the UK.

“For more than one hundred years now our armed forces have fought in defense of our common values and interests,” said Defense Minister Tobias Ellwood. “Our two countries have developed the deepest, broadest and most advanced relationship of any two nations.”

The contract includes the construction of a flight simulator facility, a maintenance unit, new hangars and storage facilities. Engineers will modify the base’s current infrastructure and build new squadron parking aprons, two new hangars, a new dual-squadron operations/aircraft maintenance facility, and a flight simulator.

The flight simulator will have the capacity to link to other simulators used by U.K. pilots across the U.K. and beyond, allowing expertise to be shared and pilots from the U.K. and U.S. to train together on a regular basis.

About 700 contractors are expected on base at the height of construction. Once complete, it will welcome an additional 1,200 U.S. airmen and 48 aircraft.

“This is an exciting milestone for the 48th Fighter Wing and for all our partners. We’re transforming RAF Lakenheath together, and the work we do today is critical to the future security of the United States, the United Kingdom and the NATO Alliance,” Col. Will Marshall, 48th Fighter Wing commander, said in a statement.

The Royal Air Force currently has nine F-35s in its inventory, stationed nearby at RAF Marham.

Work on the base will begin summer, 2019. The first F-35s are scheduled to arrive in 2021.

By Debbie Gregory.

OtoTech, a new invention from Samuel Owen, could be a game-changer for motion sickness.

While it might not seem like such a big problem, motion sickness affects soldiers riding in vehicles, sailors during moderate as well as rough seas, Air Force personnel and parachutists.

And now, as more and more training is conducted in virtual reality, the problem is expected to worsen.

Owen’s prototype OtoTech is worn on a headband behind the ear, and uses subtle vibrations to change the way the brain computes the fact that the body that it’s attached to is in motion. Early tests show it relieves motion sickness without the side effects of drugs, Owen said, though he admits the science is so young that it’s not clear just how.

While many other devices are designed to treat the symptoms of motion sickness, OtoTech goes after the actual cause.

“Two [of the four vestibulocochlear nerve fibers] go to the brain, two go to your reflexes,” Owen said.

“The working hypothesis is that [the vibration] causes a chaotic and non-informative stimulus to go to the brain. Somewhere, probably the cerebellum, there’s a filtering mechanism that filters out non-informative sensed information. It’s the reason you don’t notice the shirt on your back right now,” he said.

So while you remain consciously aware that you’re moving, the balance portion of your brain stops noticing the fact; the data has been drowned out in white noise from the device.

Initial testing has resulted in a decrease of motion sickness without affecting balance, vision or alertness.

Owen says that he has initially marketed the device to vertigo sufferers.

Double-blind trials conducted by researchers at Jaguar Land Rover have so far yielded positive results.

By Debbie Gregory.

The U.S. Space Force,  a proposed branch of the United States Armed Forces which is intended to have control over military operations in outer space, will include uniformed service members drawn from the Air Force, Army and Navy.

According to a Department of Defense proposal, the Space Force would absorb Air Force Space Command, the Army’s 1st Space Brigade, the Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command and Naval Satellite Operations Center.

Installations and facilities would remain within their current services until the Space Force achieves an appropriate operating capability.

The National Reconnaissance Office would not be immediately merged in, although integration could gradually occur.

The missions of the Space Force would include space situational advantage; battle management command and control of space forces; space lift and range operations; space support to nuclear command and control; missile warning; satellite communications and position, navigation and timing.

Six recommendations laid out by Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan,  the Pentagon’s point person responsible for formulating a plan to implement a Space Force, include language that:

• Guides the creation of a unified space command to be known as U.S. Space Command
• Gives direction on an legislative proposal for a Space Force
• Calls for creating a funding plan in the fiscal year 2020 budget for a Space Force
• Outlines an interagency authorities review
• Establishes joint Space Development Agency for technology procurement
• Strengthens the relationship between military space and the intelligence community

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, who formerly opposed separating the Air Force’s space functions from the service, now says she supports Trump’s Space Force plan.

The National Space Council is chaired by Vice President Mike Pence.