President-elect Joe Biden will nominate retired Army Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III to be his Defense Secretary, the transition team announced Dec. 8. Austin, who left the military in 2016 as the four-star head of U.S. Central Command, would be the first-ever Black man to ...
Congress
House-Senate Conferees require a larger Air Force in the final version of the fiscal 2021 defense bill, directing the service to build the 386 combat squadrons it said it needs to meet the National Defense Strategy, and specifically raising the bomber fleet to 225 aircraft, ...
The Air Force has four months to figure out exactly what it wants the Advanced Battle Management System to do, as part of a proposed set of congressional oversight requirements. ABMS is the service’s sweeping effort to connect its platforms, not only as attack assets ...
Every year, Congress and the military debate which combat assets should head to the boneyard and which have more life left in them. Lawmakers often opt to keep Air Force systems that bring jobs to their districts, which complicates matters as the service looks to ...
Congress has backed off on requiring the Space Force to adopt naval ranks, allowing the new service to choose its own military rank system and a name for its members. Former Navy SEAL Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) earlier this year floated the idea of calling ...
As the final days of 2020 count down, House and Senate negotiators have agreed on sweeping defense policy legislation that offers nearly $732 billion to the armed forces in fiscal 2021. “The FY21 NDAA focuses on maintaining the strength of our defense enterprise as our ...
Alabama Rep. Mike Rogers, a leading Space Force proponent, will become the top Republican member of the House Armed Services Committee, his office said Dec. 3. “It’s an honor to be selected by my colleagues to lead the Republicans as Ranking Member of the House ...
The Air Force on Nov. 25 publicly announced plans to house C-130Js at Air National Guard wings in Kentucky, Texas, West Virginia, and Georgia, pending environmental impact analyses. The tentative basing decisions were shared with Congress a day earlier, Air National Guard spokesperson Lt. Col. ...
The drama of the twin Georgia Senate runoff elections looming in January could seep into negotiations over the 2021 defense policy bill, a key GOP lawmaker warned Nov. 17. Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), who is retiring this term as ranking member of the House Armed ...
