With demand for munitions in Ukraine only increasing and NATO members expressing fears about their own stockpile levels, Pentagon planners last week laid out a three-pronged approach to keeping US munition stocks at acceptable levels. Now defense officials just have to get industry to trust them. The three steps, revealed as part of the fiscal 2024 budget rollout and in subsequent statements by officials, are a mix of classic concepts and new ideas.
Senate lawmakers introduced a legislative package on March 21 to establish civilian cybersecurity reserve pilot programs within the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security to help bolster the federal government’s cyber resilience amid a national shortage of high-skilled cybersecurity personnel.
The United States has offered Slovakia 12 new military helicopters as compensation for the MiG-29 fighter jets the European country is giving to Ukraine, Slovakia’s defense minister said March 22. Under the offer, Slovakia would pay $340 million for the Bell AH-1Z attack choppers in a deal worth about $1 billion that also includes 500 AGM-114 Hellfire II missiles and training, Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad said.
Driven by advancements in technology and research, the Air Force and Space Force are adapting how they train their warfighters to complete the missions at hand. Keep up with all the latest news on changes and improvements to the services’ training enterprises.
The military lockdown on information about U.S. training of Ukrainian troops has been near absolute, with reporters blocked from access to American service members' work in Poland and even training efforts in the United States. But on March 21, reporters were allowed to watch Ukrainian students set up and initialize an entire Patriot missile battery at Fort Sill, Okla., part of a training program that was announced in January.
The risk of war with China is spurring the U.S. Air Force to create “air mobility teams” charged with dispersing quickly to deliver cargo to far-flung spots across the Indo-Pacific. Airmen at the home of U.S. Forces Japan in western Tokyo explained how the teams work during a visit by Maj. Gen. John Klein, commander of the Air Force Expeditionary Center at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J.
When top Pentagon leaders face lawmakers this week to defend their budget proposal, they expect a small but vocal minority of Republicans to hammer them with accusations that military leadership is weakening the armed forces by imposing “woke” policies on troops. Since President Joe Biden took office, conservative lawmakers have teed up tense exchanges with Pentagon leaders in moments tailor-made for YouTube. But this year, Republicans control the House, meaning those mid-hearing dustups will take center stage, and in some cases will be led by a committee chair.
As the military looks at another year where it will likely fall short of its recruiting goals, its services want to find ways to bring in new sources of recruits. It means working with candidates who previously fell short of standards, issuing waivers to others and finding underrepresented demographic groups. The services lowered their recruiting goals for 2024 after failing to meet their 2023 targets in most cases; only the Marine Corps met its goals. The Army said only 23 percent of 17- to 24-year-old Americans are fully qualified to serve, with similar numbers for the Air Force and Navy.
In April of 2022, Lt. Col. Vanessa Wilcox emerged as the very first female B-52 squadron commander in Air Force history. “The 96th Bomb Squadron and all of our bomb squadrons are over 100 years old, and so we stand on giants who have brought us to the point of where we are, still flying this old aircraft,” Wilcox said. Although the first to shatter this glass ceiling, Wilcox remains humble in acknowledging her status and remembering that the Air Force has come a long way in diversification.
