Pay and Benefits and National Security

Former British prime minister and now foreign minister David Cameron urged the U.S. Congress not to stop supporting Ukraine, saying the West has gotten a bargain in dramatically reducing Russia’s military power for a fraction of the U.S. defense budget.

The Space Force’s top enlisted ranks are poised to grow by 14 chief master sergeants and 30 senior master sergeants, the Air Force Personnel Center announced Dec. 7. Competition for the service’s E-8 grade in particular continues to grow fiercer with each passing year as more Guardians join and move…

Senate and House leaders unveiled their compromise conference report for the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act on Dec. 7—and the annual defense policy bill is poised to pump the brakes on the Air Force’s plans to retire dozens of F-15E, F-16, and F-22 fighters in the coming years. The report, a combination…

After proving last month that the Link 16 data network can broadcast from space to the ground, the director of the Space Development Agency expects to test similar connections for datalinks that are more advanced than the 1980s-era Link 16.

The U.S. military announced Dec. 6 that it is standing down its entire fleet of Ospreys after eight Airmen were killed in a crash. The Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy are all standing down Osprey operations after an Air Force Special Operations Command CV-22 crashed off the coast of…

The U.S. can’t match China plane-for-plane or ship-for-ship and shouldn’t try, defense experts told the House Armed Services Committee. But the defense industrial base has to be married to new, asymmetric, disruptive operational concepts that the Pentagon is willing to adapt on the fly.

The Senate confirmed senior military nominations for 105 Air Force and Space Force officers late Dec. 5, a massive bloc that built up over months during the standoff between Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) and the Pentagon. Some of the officers had been awaiting confirmation since January, others only joined the queue…

The Space Force will send its space place, X-37B, back into orbit this weekend. When it comes back down is anyone’s guess, at least publicly. On Dec. 10, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket is slated to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as part of the National Security…

The U.S. and Sweden signed a bilateral Defense Cooperation Agreement on Dec. 5 that will strengthen military ties between them and likely lead to U.S. troops and prepositioned gear on Swedish soil. Swedish Defense minister Pal Jonson said the war in Ukraine prompted Sweden's joining NATO and he laid out…