USA Today
Syrian rebels seized Damascus on Dec. 8, and long-time President Bashar al-Assad fled the battle-scarred country amid the stunning collapse of his regime after 13 years of war. Assad and his family have arrived in Russia, granted asylum “on humanitarian grounds,” Russian news agencies reported on Dec. 8, citing a Kremlin source.
The Wall Street Journal
Entering the weekend, Syria President Bashar al-Assad showed no signs of yielding. As armed rebels closed in Dec. 7 on Damascus, Assad ordered his forces to defend the Syrian capital, seemingly confident the military would come to his rescue, according to Syrian officials familiar with the matter. By late Dec. 7, Assad had vanished. He didn’t show up for a prepared address to the nation, and his cabinet had no idea where he was. They learned with the rest of the world that Assad had escaped the country hours ahead of the rebels who captured Syria.
The New York Times
The Air Force is at least decades away from being ready to stop buying and flying human-piloted fighter jets like the F-35, but it also does not want to rush into building a next generation of these high-priced fighting machines until it has a better idea of just what it needs. That is the conundrum the Air Force detailed this week, as it is facing increasing scrutiny over its spending on piloted fighter jets, most notably from Elon Musk, whom President-elect Donald J. Trump has appointed to help oversee a governmentwide cost-cutting effort.
DefenseScoop
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin touched down in Japan on Dec. 8, kicking off his 13th and final trip to the Indo-Pacific region as the Pentagon’s chief. Here, he’ll spend the next three days engaging with U.S. troops and Japanese leaders about ongoing joint command-and-control upgrades the two militaries are pursuing, as well as a range of other nascent cooperative efforts designed to expand and modernize their shared arsenals of warfighting assets.
Military Times
Junior enlisted troops will see a 14.5 percent pay raise in 2025 under a deal negotiated by House and Senate leaders in this year’s defense authorization bill, a move that adds between $3,000 and $6,000 to younger service members’ basic pay next year.
The Associated Press
The U.S. severely lags behind China in shipbuilding capacity, lawmakers and experts have warned, as the Biden administration tries to build up the country’s ability to develop and produce weapons and other defense supplies to fend off war.
Defense One
China, Russia, and Iran are working closely together across the globe, which presents new threats to U.S. and allied national security, defense officials from the outgoing and incoming administrations said Dec. 7. But even together, those countries are not stronger than the American military and its allies, they said.
Breaking Defense
In order for the alliance to be better equipped at dealing with cyber threats, NATO is in the process of standing up a new cyber center—to go online by 2028—that will meld parts of its various cyber entities into one, a NATO official told Breaking Defense this week.
Defense News
Palantir and Anduril, two leading defense technology firms, announced today they’re creating an industry consortium to address what they see as hurdles impeding the Defense Department’s adoption of AI.
The War Zone
Former Trump Acting SECDEF Talks About the Future of Big Ticket Defense Programs
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Aviation Week
The U.S. Air Force and Navy should more closely collaborate on variants of their next-generation fighters instead of further splitting apart as development continues, an influential senator argues.
SpaceNews
The vice chief of space operations for the U.S. Space Force, Gen. Michael Guetlein, issued a stark warning this weekend about China’s accelerating advances in space technology and its growing capacity to challenge the United States’ dominance in orbit. Speaking Dec. 7 at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, Calif., Guetlein described the evolving space environment as increasingly hostile, marked by the erosion of longstanding norms and the emergence of new threats to U.S. space assets.
One More Thing
Stars and Stripes
U.S. military bases across the country and around the world are hosting Christmas tree lighting ceremonies and festive activities for service members and their families to celebrate the beginning of the holiday season. Military communities are gathering to witness the illumination of largely decorated Christmas trees and to enjoy holiday parades, markets, games and special appearances by Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus.
