In episode 175 of the Aerospace Advantage podcast, host John “Slick” Baum and retired Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula speak with AMC commander Gen. Mike Minihan. Air mobility is a lynchpin for any modern military operation. That demands delivering everything from fuel to vital supplies within a theater. The means of this are well known: airlifters and tankers. Even more vital are the personnel. How this enterprise is employed will evolve markedly given future threats and growing multi-theater demand. This will demand enhanced capacity, revised capabilities, new operational concepts, considerations tied to survivability both in the air and on the ground, plus fresh thinking regarding command and control.
U.S. forces successfully destroyed two drones March 31 that originated in Houthi-controlled areas of Yeman, U.S. Central Command announced. One of the unmanned aerial systems (UAS) was shot down over the Red Sea, and the other was engaged on the ground as it prepared to launch. The drones “presented a threat to U.S. and coalition forces and merchant vessels in the region,” CENTCOM said.
The Biden administration in recent days quietly authorized the transfer of billions of dollars in bombs and fighter jets to Israel despite Washington’s concerns about an anticipated military offensive in southern Gaza that could threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians.
Pale marble pavers crisscross the Terrazzo, the plaza at the heart of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado that cadets traverse daily, on the way to class, the library and meals. In their first year, cadets must run and keep to the narrow marble strips whenever they are on the 20-acre Terrazzo. Tusajigwe Owens doesn’t take short cuts. He is one of 112 Black cadets in the class of 1,071 freshmen that started at the academy in June 2022.
For more than five years, the U.S. Air Force has deemed its pilot shortage a crisis. It has established a task force, approved large-scale increases in retention bonuses and found ways to streamline pilot production to put more personnel into its cockpits.
Amid rising tensions between the Space Force and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency over commercial intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, NGA's director said this week that more combatant commands are using Program Maven, noting increased opportunities for the program thanks to the Replicator initiative. For a year, the National Reconnaissance Office, NGA, and the Space Force have been working on a solution on how to divide up control of purchasing commercial ISR.
With all Nordic countries now part of NATO, the nations must manage how to reconcile and integrate national as well as regional security needs and initiatives with what the alliance requires, which could necessitate changes to existing command structures, officials have said. In March 2023, the commanders of the Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, and Danish air forces signed a declaration that envisioned the creation of a joint Nordic air force to protect their shared airspaces.
John Plumb, assistant secretary of Defense for space policy, will exit the Pentagon come May, Breaking Defense has learned. In response to an inquiry, a DOD spokesperson confirmed that Plumb “announced to his team his intent to depart in early May.” Plumb has been in the role since March 2022, becoming the first individual to man the space policy role created by Congress in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.
The National Guard’s budgetary wish list would restore the dozen fighter jets the Air Force trimmed in its original fiscal 2025 request, and allow the service to buy all of the F-15EXs it originally planned. The nearly $2.7 billion unfunded priorities list the Guard submitted to Congress asks for another $690 million to buy six more F-15EX Eagle IIs, and another $660 million for six more F-35A Joint Strike Fighters.
The Pentagon’s Space Development Agency issued a solicitation for the third variant of satellites that aim to give warfighters access to reliable and global communications capabilities. The request for proposal, published on Sam.gov, is for the Gamma variant of SDA’s Tranche 2 transport layer, of which the organization plans to purchase “approximately 20” space vehicles from a single vendor.
The process of removing more than 104 million gallons of fuel from the bulk storage facility at Red Hill has revealed lessons that apply across the Department of Defense, the commander of Joint Task Force Red Hill told Defense One. Fuel spills in 2021 from the massive facility contaminated the drinking water of tens of thousands of people. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in March 2022 announced that the military would defuel and close Red Hill, and the defueling began in October 2023.
U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) sent a memo to all special operations forces (SOF) veterans, calling for retired and active duty service members alike to report any cancer diagnosis they have, or might receive, and to complete routine cancer screening tests. The memo, signed by SOCOM’s commander, Gen. Bryan Fenton, and Command Sgt. Maj. Shane Shorter, was sent on March 5 and recently posted to social media channels. In cooperation with the Defense Health Agency, it announces a comprehensive study evaluating the cancer risk within the SOF community.
Boeing is setting its sights on two upcoming big-ticket satellite procurements from the U.S. Space Force, leveraging its recent contracts for Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) satellites and its foothold in commercial spacecraft manufacturing. The Space Force is expected to seek bids this coming year for highly specialized, jam-resistant satellite systems that the military deems “no fail” assets, meaning that they must deliver secure communications even in the most contested environments.
Superstitions in the U.S. military can be found in every unit, from the battalion headquarters down to the fire team, the chief’s mess to the flight deck, or the cockpit of a fighter jet to the depths of a nuclear silo. Some are rooted deeply in military history, while others are born from a series of unfortunate events. Task & Purpose surveyed our audience to hear what superstitions service members carried with them while serving or even after leaving the service—and the stories we heard did not disappoint.
