For years, Marines have practiced deploying and operating from austere environments. We had to take everything from beans to bullets, and be prepared to operate upon arrival. If you didn’t bring it, you didn’t have it. The SMART-1 team recently had to operate in a remote section of Arizona, which by every definition, as austere.

There's a new baby in the Nalls Aviation family. At about 13 feet long and about 5 feet, 8 inches high, it fits neatly under the wing of the Sea Harrier and the L-39 already in the hangars. It looks more like a model airplane than the real thing, but real it is.

Aerial Productions International, (API) is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Nalls Aviation family. You may have heard of the BD-5J, known as “The World’s Smallest Jet.” Nalls Aviation already owns the exact jet sanctioned by Guinness, formerly registered as N3038V as a static jet. Recently, Bob Bishop called and asked the company to step in and help with his fleet of 4 flying BDs.

"Badass Pilot" Art Nalls answers your questions about his Royal Navy Sea Harrier. Learn about the steps his team took to make it airshow-worthy, whether it ever will return to its original home in Great Britain and how many gallons of fuel per mile it consumes — not how many miles per gallon!

API, Inc. has entered into an agreement with Howmet Castings , an ALCOA company, of La Porte, IN to cast new generation turbine wheels for the SMART-1 powerplants. The new turbine wheels offer a 40% increase in strength and higher temperature ranges which API hopes will translate into higher thrust, greater reliability and better speed performance for the SMART-1s.

The Joint Air and Missile Exerciser Team has been formed as a result of the findings of JCMD. Attempting to take the tools and lessons learned from the five year JCMD study into the practical world of CM defense, the core team of individuals and hardware has been assembled to aid military organizations with the planning, execution and After Action Review of CM defense surrogate operations. A transportable ROC (Remote Operations Center), complete with real time multi-screen display capability, real time TSPI (Time Speed Position Information) data from onboard GPS data collection systems, multi information platform data converters and various AAR tools are among just a few of the capabilities and services JAMEX can provide. Currently under the direction of Col. Paul McGuire, Director of the US Army’s Air and Missile Battle Lab, this team works out of both Ft. Bliss and Eglin AFB. Ms. Geri Lentz is the Program Director for the JAMEX CM Flight Operations out of Eglin AFB.

API, Inc. has solved the problem of loss of navigation during GPS jamming at military exercises by updating their Crossbow 500 AHRS (Attitude Heading Reference System) to allow continued navigation with 3% accuracy during GPS out conditions. Additionally, SMART-1 pilots will continue to receive critical pitch, roll and altitude information, allowing most missions to be completed.

The retirement ceremony of Col. William N. Holway, Director of the Joint Cruise Missile Defense program coincides with the closing of the organization’s five year study of our nation’s ability to detect and defeat the enemy cruise missile threat.

Tonopah Test Range was the site of the first ever simultaneous launch of four SMART-1s in their roles as cruise missile surrogates. While the March, 05 exercise was plagued by unusual weather in the form of rain, snow and ice, the SMART-1s were credited with achieving 85% of their mission goals. The SMART-1s were assigned various ground targets including US Army Patriot sites which allowed our warfighters the opportunity to practice their skills in defending against CM threats.

On February 28, 2005, the SMART-1s began to fly missions for the US Navy. These missions are being flown in support of the developmental testing of the new FA-18E/F radar. SMART-1 will be part of future work for both the developmental (DT) and operational (OT) test programs. The program is expected to run through 2006.

CJTFEX 04 (June 04) was the site of the first ever night low level CM surrogate flights conducted by the EFIS (Electronic Flight Information System) equipped SMART-1s. Multiple night strikes were a part of the 112 sorties conducted by the Freedom Team (flight and ground crews of the SMART-1s) during the two week, 10 flight day operation.