As drug violence in Mexico has flared, the US military has grown active, providing the Mexican forces with equipment, training, and intelligence. US Northern Command’s commander, Adm. James Winnefeld, speaking in Colorado Springs, Colo., warned that Mexico is in a war “and we ought to do everything we can to help them win it.” He called Mexico City “courageous” for taking on the criminal organizations, despite the resulting violence. Winnefeld: “The government of Mexico has decided to take this problem on, and they didn’t have to do it. They could have backed off and let things lie the way they were, but they have decided that this is a battle for the future of Mexico.” He noted in his Oct. 29 address, that, despite historic political sensitivities, “they’ve asked for our help in certain areas,” and that “we are doing everything we can to help . . . in the right way.”
The Defense Innovation Unit is gearing up for the first flight of its commercially developed hypersonic testbed as soon as the end of February—part of a larger project to quickly increase the cadence of the Pentagon’s hypersonic flight testing and field advanced, high-speed systems and components at scale.
