Capt. Stephen R. Phillis received the Silver Star posthumously for his actions in Desert Storm. On Feb. 15, 1991, he was flying one of two A-10s tasked with attacking a massive formation of Iraqi armor in the Kuwait desert, when his wingman was shot down. Phillis, the mission commander, lingered above the site for three minutes and 45 seconds—intentionally drawing fire to help the search and rescue effort before he was ultimately shot down himself. Now, more than 30 years after the incident, on his former U.S. Air Force Academy boxing buddies, after years of research, is pressing for Phillis to receive a military award more befitting his sacrifice. “You have a hard time explaining what heroics in an airplane looks like,” said Jim Demarest, a brigadier general in the Florida Air National Guard and himself a veteran of Desert Storm. “Steve’s heroics check all the boxes."

A bipartisan group of more than 30 senators is sponsoring a bill that would overhaul military justice by taking the decision to prosecute serious crimes including sexual assault away from commanders to independent prosecutors. The Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act, unveiled April 29, comes as the Pentagon itself is reviewing how it handles sexual assault. The legislation would “take critical steps to create a more professional and transparent military justice system for serious crimes—including rape and sexual assault, murder, manslaughter, child endangerment, child pornography, and negligent homicide,” according to a statement from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).

The United States has a slim lead over China in artificial intelligence technology, but the gap is rapidly closing and “urgent action must be taken” to preserve U.S. competitiveness, said members of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence during an Atlantic Council virtual event. The commission set an aggressive goal for the Defense Department to be "AI-ready" by 2025, but in order for that to happen it needs more money for basic AI research and must grow better at identifying and tracking talent, said Robert O. Work, vice chairman of the commission, on April 29.

F-15Es deployed to the Middle East on April 25 proved their ability to move bombs in a “tactical ferry mission” just two months after the concept was originally tested. Six Strike Eagles flew to Al Dhafra Air Base, United Arab Emirates, from another deployed location carrying double the amount of bombs in their standard load, reducing the need for mobility aircraft to ferry the broken down bombs closer to the fight. “The Strike Eagle can now carry enough JDAMs for an active combat mission, land at a remote location, and reload itself and/or another aircraft—such as an F-35 or F-22—for additional combat sorties,” 85th Test and Evaluation Squadron Commander Lt. Col. Jacob Lindaman said in a release.

An Air Force C-5M loaded with COVID-19 relief supplies left Travis Air Force Base, Calif., on April 28 for New Delhi, India, as that country struggles with a large outbreak of the virus that has stressed its health care system. The C-5M, from the 60th Air Mobility Wing, carried oxygen cylinders with regulators, N95 masks, and rapid testing kits to Indira Gandhi International Airport, according to U.S. Transportation Command. The flight is the first of “several large shipments” of supplies from the state of California and the U.S. Agency for International Development.