The Army says it will continue the suspension of horse-drawn funeral services at Arlington National Cemetery after roughly a year of no operations, leaving some family members with a tough decision on how they want to honor their service members.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed into law a bill overhauling army mobilization rules, according to the parliamentary website, as Ukraine seeks to address acute troop shortages in its fight against Russia. More than two years into the war, Ukraine is on the back foot and its top military commander on the eastern frontline has said Russian forces outnumbered its own by up to 10 times.
As the Marines grow their drone fleet, they need to begin training their own crews instead of relying on the Air Force, the top Marine said. During budget testimony April 16 before a subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. John Hoeven, (R-N.D.), asked Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith about the Corps’ needs for airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets.
Slick chats with Dr. Michael Brown of AFRL, and Mark Rettig of GE Aerospace about what the Air Force and industry are doing to help realize this crucial capability at an operational level. The U.S. spent the 1960s as the undisputed hypersonic leader, with the famed X-15 executing 199 successful flights, many over five times the speed of sound at the edge of space. Now, America faces fierce adversary competition in the hypersonic realm, and our defense community must respond. Our conversation in this episode explains how the government and industry are striving to realize the necessary innovations to field this capability at an operational level. We also discuss how and why hypersonic technology will impact tomorrow’s battlespace.
New imagery of China's aircraft carrier Fujian shows the vessel with the fullest deck we've seen to date. A total of five aircraft mockups—including model fighters, a trainer, and an early warning and control aircraft—can be seen embarked. This comes as Fujian is expected to head out for sea trials in the very near future.
At least one of the E-7A Wedgetail prototypes will be a year late due to ongoing price negotiations with prime contractor Boeing, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall disclosed April 16. “The price that we got from the prime came in much higher than we had anticipated,” Kendall said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. “We’ve been involved in negotiations trying to get it down. We have come much closer, but we’re not really at closure yet.”
The Navy urgently needs Congress to pass a stalled national security spending plan to replenish the nearly $1 billion in munitions spent to counter attacks by Iran and its proxies in the Middle East in the past six months, the Navy secretary said April 16.
The Defense Department announced April 16 it awarded a $14.4 million contract to semiconductor manufacturer 5N Plus to boost production of space-qualified materials for solar cells.
Six months into the conflict against Hamas, the Israeli public is deeply divided about how to win the war in the Gaza Strip. So, too, are the three top officials in the war cabinet meant to foster unity in that effort. Long-simmering grudges and arguments over how best to fight Hamas have soured relations between Israel’s wartime decision makers—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and the former head of the Israeli military, Benny Gantz.
Getting fuel to farflung military forces, always a challenge, is even tougher in the vast Pacific. But a new take on an old energy source may soon ease the burden. On April 16, the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit announced that it is doubling to six the number of technology companies involved in a project to try out advances in geothermal energy, which draws upon liquid heated by the Earth, is carbon neutral, and doesn’t require long and vulnerable supply lines.
One of Travis Air Force Base’s KC-10 Extenders will not be subject to the scrapyard and instead will live out retirement as a display aircraft at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Ohio. According to the museum, serial 84-0191 took part in Operation El Dorado Canyon in 1986 where it served as a “mother ship” for F-111s targeting a command center for a Libyan terrorist group in Tripoli.
