Gen. Paul Hester, head of Pacific Air Forces, has invited delegations from China to visit and observe various exercises in the Pacific in recent months, particularly one on Guam—and they have accepted every one. However, Hester told Air Force Magazine during an interview Sept. 26 at AFA’s Air & Space Conference in Washington, that there has not yet been a reciprocal invitation to observe exercises or visit air facilities in mainland China. The US was invited to observe joint Sino-Russian exercises in Russia, and the US sent “three lieutenant colonels” to those, he noted, adding that progress in engaging his counterparts in China have been “slow, plodding.”
The Space Development Agency says it’s on track to issue its next batch of missile warning and tracking satellite contracts this month after those awards were delayed by the Pentagon’s decision to divert funds from the agency to pay troops during this fall’s prolonged government shutdown.
