The Pentagon is shifting jet fighters, armed drones, and other aircraft to Qatar, repositioning its forces to get around restrictions on conducting airstrikes from an air base long used by the U.S. in the United Arab Emirates.
Hamas militants attacked Israel's main crossing point for delivering humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip on May 5, dealing a blow to the ongoing crease-fire efforts that appear at an impasse with both sides blaming each other. The attack on Israel's Kerem Shalom crossing killed three Israeli soldiers and wounded several others, three of whom were critically wounded, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces said. The attack prompted officials to close the terminal, disrupting critical shipments of food and other humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Russian attacks on Ukraine's Kharkiv and Dnipro regions and the Black Sea port city of Odesa killed at least two civilians, set a food factory ablaze and damaged other infrastructure, homes and commercial buildings on May 4, regional officials said. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had used eight missiles of various kinds and nearly 70 guided aerial bombs against communities and frontline positions during the day, after Ukraine's air force downed 13 Shahed drones that targeted the Kharkiv and Dnipro regions overnight.
In episode 181 of the “Aerospace Advantage,” Heather “Lucky” Penney and John “Slick” Baum chat with members of the Mitchell Institute team about topics you’ve seen in the national security headlines, beginning with how and why the legislation aiding Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan finally advanced. They share perspectives regarding congressional hearings featuring Air Force and Space Force leaders. The team also provides perspectives regarding the CCA awards to General Atomics and Anduril, and spacepower experts dig into a number of topics.
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of U.S. airpower. But the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence, not a human pilot. And riding in the front seat was Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall.
After hours of planning and design work, a team of Air Force officers and aerospace technology designers put the last pieces of an 8 lb. drone together. The uncrewed aerial system, which looked like a miniature prop plane, was then picked up and launched into the sky, taking flight. The team had planned, assembled and flown a new drone in less than a full day’s time.
Americans are generally familiar with the U.S. military, holding our 2 million Active, Guard, and Reserve members in high esteem and routinely thanking the millions of veterans of the armed forces for their service. But few know much about the unpaid shadow force behind those volunteering to serve the country in the military—the nation’s military spouses.
Air Force Special Operations Command is taking advantage of “significant advancements” in autonomous aircraft technology to have their drones do a lot more than the traditional counterterrorism missions. One concept will transform its MQ-9 medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned systems from surveillance aircraft to motherships that can dispatch smaller drones to perform a variety of missions.
The Space Force’s flagship but somewhat troubled missile warning satellite development program is babystepping its way toward deployment of both its space and ground segments—although the first of the Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (Next-Gen OPIR) birds may well miss its planned 2025 launch into geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) by a year.
The Air Force has updated its mental health rules to allow Airmen to seek treatment for 60 days before they are required to obtain a return-to-duty waiver to resume flying, the service said in a release May 1. The new policy eliminates the mandatory waiting, or “stabilization,” period that kept aviators grounded longer after seeking help and a potential diagnosis.
The Marine Corps wants to employ more passive sensors and kinetic weapons to find and take down drones, and plans to field personal drone detectors in the next 12 months, officers said May 2 at the Modern Day Marine conference.
Months after defense giant Lockheed Martin took the extraordinary step of suing its supplier Howmet Aerospace over a dispute concerning the supply of titanium for the F-35, the two parties have quietly settled the case, according to federal court records reviewed by Breaking Defense.
Boeing has confirmed it aims to build on growing export interest in the F-15EX Eagle II by offering the fighter to Saudi Arabia, a long-term operator of the Eagle, which has previously bought successively more capable variants. The latest sales effort comes after Boeing offered the F-15EX to Poland, while Israel recently requested its own version of the jet, and the U.S. State Department has also approved a potential sale to Indonesia. However, the F-15EX finds itself in direct competition in Saudi Arabia with rival European designs: the Dassault Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon.
Russian forces are now operating inside an air base in Niger where U.S. troops also are positioned, but they pose little risk to American personnel there, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said this week. “I’m always focused on the safety and protection of our troops. ... But right now, I don’t see a significant issue here in terms of our force protection,” Austin said during a news conference in Honolulu on May 2.
The U.S. Air Force is gearing up for a demonstration next year of a satellite communications network that can seamlessly integrate government-owned and commercial constellations on a single, secure military terminal. The demonstration is a key milestone in the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Defense Experimentation Using Commercial Space Internet, or DEUCSI—a program launched in 2018 to explore augmenting military communications by leveraging the growing commercial satellite internet industry.
In flip-flops and shorts, one of the finest soldiers in a resistance force battling the military junta in Myanmar showed off his weaponry. It was, he apologized, mostly in pieces. The rebel, Ko Shan Gyi, glued panels of plastic shaped by a 3D printer. Nearby, electrical innards foraged from Chinese-made drones used for agricultural purposes were arrayed on the ground, their wires exposed as if awaiting surgery. Other parts needed to construct homemade drones, including chunks of Styrofoam studded with propellers, crowded a pair of leaf-walled shacks.
A decorated Vietnam War pilot, Dick Rutan died May 3 at a hospital in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, with ... loved ones by his side. He was 85. His friend Bill Whittle said he died on his own terms when he decided against enduring a second night on oxygen after suffering a severe lung infection.
