With the New START treaty now under consideration of the US Congress, Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz said the Air Force Global Strike Command staff had submitted a detailed report—included with the Air Force portion of the Congressionally directed “1251 report”—to Pentagon leadership detailing what impact the treaty would have on the command’s ICBM and bomber force structure. If Congress approves the treaty, it would permit the US to maintain up to 60 nuclear bombers and up to 420 ICBMs, said Klotz. “I think … we can get to those numbers with little trouble,” he added.
The United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force has unveiled a new electronic warfare drone designed to fly with fighter jets into contested airspace, including alongside its fleet of F-35s. RAF says it plans to develop models that draw on the U.S. Air Force’s approach of mating unmanned systems with crewed platforms.