“As the Chiefs of services [are] increasingly pulled in multiple directions in both time and space, we have had an increasing number of both formal and informal discussions on what readiness really means, and what it should mean,” write Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. and Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David H. Berger. “This article is a continuation of those discussions and, while there are only two service Chiefs on the byline, we have had likeminded conversations with our fellow service Chiefs—the Chief of Staff of the Army, Chief of Naval Operations, and Chief of Space Operations.”
A number of countries in the Asia-Pacific region are caught up in the global hypersonic and directed-energy weapons race, with these regional powers having either developed or publicly stated intentions to develop such technology. Defense News has contacted regional government and military officials, businesses, and analysts to find out who is keeping pace in the worldwide contest.
“In an era when national security demands are increasing while resources allocated to defense are decreasing, leaders must prioritize solutions that optimize U.S. power-projection capabilities at best value,” writes retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, dean of the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. “To those points, the choice between Air Force bombers and Army long-range missiles yields a very clear determination: Bombers win, hands down.”
Fighting in Afghanistan will intensify sharply and Taliban militants could threaten major cities unless a Biden administration diplomatic push to end the 20-year conflict yields results in the next two months, according to two senior U.S. commanders. The tight time frame is driven by a May 1 deadline to withdraw the remaining U.S. troops from Afghanistan, as required under a deal with the Taliban that President Biden inherited from the Trump administration.
Indo-Pacific Command has drafted a new warfighting concept for the Asian theater, designed to parallel the global Joint Warfighting Concept spearheaded by the Joint Staff, says George Ka’iliwai, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s director for requirements. The new INDOPACOM Warfighting Concept is being shepherded by the command’s J5 planning directorate, said Ka’iliwai at the National Defense Industrial Association POST conference on March 12.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard on March 15 inaugurated a new underground facility designated for missile storage, the country’s state TV reported. The report quotes Guard commander Gen. Hossein Salami as saying that cruise and ballistic missiles will empower the force’s navy even more.
“With the U.S. Air Force buying F-15EXs to replace its F-15C/Ds, the Israeli Air Force may be waiting to turn one country's trash into treasure,” writes Tyler Rogoway, editor-in-chief of The War Zone.
A year into the pandemic, a Defense News review tried to measure its toll on the defense industry. The full scope of damage is complex and still coming into focus, but a broad outline is becoming clear.
The State Department has approved a potential $1.77 billion sale of P-8 aircraft and associated equipment to Germany, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
Viasat and Air Force Research Laboratory will recommend ways to build a “hybrid architecture" of commercial and government satellites.
The Defense Advanced Research Agency awarded four research teams multimillion-dollar contracts to figure out how to perform computations on encrypted data faster and with less power.
Titan Ranch, located at 23 Missile Base Road in Vilonia, Ark., offers renters the chance to spend a night underground in a converted intercontinental ballistic missile facility. The facility was one of 18 underground Titan II missile silos in Arkansas that helped form the backbone of the United States' nuclear arsenal from the 1960s until the 1980s.
