Verbatim. Air Force Magazine. Cornelia Schneider-Frank/Pixabay
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Verbatim
June 18, 2026
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Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org
Verbatim – May/June 2026
A Heroes Toast
“These 80 young Americans were extraordinary in every single way—not just on the day of that operation but on the lives they led after that. In 1942, when this … creative operation was conceived it showed the beginnings of the culture of what became the American Air Force. Let’s launch airplanes off of an aircraft carrier that are designed to run off thousands of feet of runway. … They found the most creative Airman of that day, Jimmy Doolittle, and [he] found volunteers. These guys new the odds. Even in training they knew how difficult this was going to be. They never practiced landing on the boat, they only practiced launching from the boat. … They flew toward the enemy. … The audacity of those Doolittle Raiders changed the momentum and the course of history. They proved that if you have the guts to try, great things can be done by the United States of America.”
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine
Before leading the annual Raiders Memorial Toast, April 17, 2026, at AFA Headquarters
Communication Layers
“Cyber is critical. It’s indistinguishable from space operations. If you can’t control the networks that distribute the data, you can’t do the space missions, so we take it very seriously. … If you’re vulnerable in the network, you’re vulnerable on orbit as well.”
Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman
On the importance of cyber during a May 20 House Armed Services Committee hearing
Right This Way
“The way I’ve approached this—knowing how smaller companies work—is fast yeses and fast nos. The worst thing for a small company is to be dragged through a multiyear process. … They knock on 100 doors, and at the end of it, there’s no buyer, right? … How do I create one big front door that they could come in?”
Defense Department Chief Technology Officer Emil Michael
Speaking at the Special Operations Forces panel on lethal AI & autonomous systems in Tampa [Breaking Defense, May 20]
Balancing Act
“If it’s not affordable and it’s not scalable, we are not going to produce it. That’s a signal to industry that you need to simplify the solution. You need to think innovatively about the requirements.”
Golden Dome Director Gen. Michael Guetlein
Discussing how the program is balancing cost and capability during a May 14 event in Washington, D.C.
U.S. Forces in Europe — Two Views
No Surprise…
“As the European pillar of the alliance gets stronger, this allows the U.S. to reduce its presence in Europe and limit itself to providing only those critical capabilities that allies cannot yet provide. So we should expect there to be a redeployment of U.S. forces over time as allies build their capacity.”
Supreme Allied Commander Europe and Air Force Gen. Alexus Grynkewich
Explaining the U.S. administration’s reasoning behind U.S. troop withdrawals from Europe
…Not So Fast
“We are very concerned by the decision to withdraw a U.S. brigade from Germany. … Even as allies move toward spending 5 percent of GDP on defense, translating that investment into the military capability … will take time. Prematurely reducing America’s forward presence in Europe before those capabilities are fully realized risks undermining deterrence and sending the wrong signal to Vladimir Putin.”
U.S. Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and U.S. Representative Mike Rogers (R-Ala.)
Chairmen of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, in a joint response to the Pentagon’s decision to withdraw approximately 5,000 troops from Germany
Unpredictability
“At the end of the day, the foundations upon which we go to war, upon which we use violence, are based upon the Law of Armed Conflict. That is the commander, the person, the human that decides to use lethal violence has to have trust and confidence that that lethal violence will be delivered in the confines of the Law of Armed Conflict, with distinction, proportionately and in the bounds of humanity. … Machines can’t be held accountable.”
Navy Adm. Frank Bradley, commander of USSOCOM
On the reality of using AI on the battlefield, stating that humans must be in the loop [Breaking Defense, May 21]
Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org
Some 50 miles from the border with North Korea, U.S. and South Korean forces recently executed their first counter-drone defense drills targeting medium-sized systems, which the North Korean military has has prioritized based on Russia and Iranian models.
A frayed wire likely triggered stray voltage to shut off a fuel valve, causing the catastrophic loss of an MQ-9 Reaper drone last August, according to a new Air Force investigation report.
The Air Force plans to put new F-15EX Eagle II fighters at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., to replace older F-15E Strike Eagles that will move to Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo.
Shield AI, a specialist vying to provide the autonomy software for the Air Force’s autonomous Collaborative Combat Aircraft, has won government backing for its X-BAT drone—but not from USAF.
The joint U.S.-South Korea Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise will end Aug. 21, a week earlier than previously planned, at the behest of President Donald Trump—a move that comes as U.S Air Force is already reviewing its exercise schedule in the Pacific.
A major U.S. Southern Command exercise this month brought representatives from 10 Latin American countries to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., for the air component of the event, with a focus on intelligence sharing for coordinating air operations.
The Air Force’s Experimental Operations Unit hosted a change of command ceremony recently, another sign of how the CCA concept is maturing and becoming entrenched in the Air Force’s structure, to the point where exercises have generated multiple sorties in a single day to simulate high-tempo combat operations.
Search and rescue Airmen from Nellis Air Base, Nev., flew more than 200 miles in two HH-60W Jolly Green IIs last week to rescue five of their Navy helicopter crew counterparts who were forced to land in mountainous terrain near Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Calif.
The Air Force said Aug. 13 it recently tested prototypes for a portable ground station for commanding and controlling semi-autonomous Collaborative Combat Aircraft.
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