“The U.S. Air Force today is the oldest and smallest in its history. Consequently, it is experiencing a severe fighter aircraft gap between what it has and what it requires to execute the national defense strategy. This gap is particularly acute within the F-35 stealth advanced fifth-generation aircraft inventory. The Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 House Armed Services Committee bill language cutting F-35 purchases exacerbate this shortfall,” writes retired Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
Since the first American shipments of sophisticated weapons to Ukraine, President Biden has never wavered on one prohibition: President Volodymyr Zelensky had to agree to never fire them into Russian territory, insisting that would violate Mr. Biden’s mandate to “avoid World War III.” But the consensus around that policy is fraying.
The Air Force has been unable to pinpoint what caused last year’s costly spike in maintenance-related aircraft mishaps, according to the service’s top leaders. In an interview with Air Force Times, Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin, the service’s highest-ranking officer, and Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force David Flosi, its top enlisted leader, said that while attempts to find a particular culprit behind the accidents have not borne answers, the service is continuing to examine why mishaps jumped.
The U.S. Space Force announced the selection of six companies to develop proposals for an electromagnetic warfare (EW) training range designed to simulate space combat scenarios. In a statement May 22, the Space Force said this specialized environment will be crucial for training service personnel, known as guardians, to defend critical satellites and other spacecraft from electronic attacks. Satellites rely on electromagnetic signals for communication, navigation, and data transmission, making them vulnerable to jamming and cyberattacks.
The Pentagon set a goal of implementing a zero-trust cybersecurity architecture across the department by the end of fiscal 2027, but now, officials have been asked to go significantly faster, according to a senior official. Under the zero-trust concept, managers are supposed to assume that networks are already compromised by adversaries, meaning they must constantly monitor and authenticate users and their devices as they move through a network.
A Russian satellite that the U.S. suspects is a testbed for future a nuclear anti-satellite weapon is operating in a rare orbit, one analysts tell Breaking Defense would be consistent with hosting a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for observing the Earth—but possibly also for testing how best to deploy a future orbital nuclear weapon.
U.S. Cyber Command and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency signed a binding memorandum this month that carves out pathways needed to expedite research and development of advanced cyberware technologies in the Department of Defense. The agreement, announced by the two Pentagon agencies this week, establishes budgets, roles and governance structures needed to swiftly move cyber technologies “from the laboratory to the cyber battlefield,” they said.
In episode 184 of the Aerospace Advantage, Heather “Lucky” Penney and retired Lt. Gen. Dave Deptula, chat with NATO’s newest airpower leader. Closely situated to Russia and vital sea lanes, Sweden not only serves as a key player in NATO, but their arctic position ties directly to our own homeland defense given northern tier approaches. Past that, Sweden has served shoulder-to-shoulder in recent years in numerous operations with our own Airmen including Afghanistan.
The struggling F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is at the top of mind for several House Armed Services Committee members, who have introduced a number of amendments meant to check rising aircraft sustainment costs and accelerate long-delayed software modernization.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has denied a request from a two-star general accused of sexual assault and other crimes to retire instead of facing a court-martial, according to the general’s attorneys. The secretary’s decision means Maj. Gen. Phillip Stewart, only the second Air Force general in history to be charged with a sexual crime, is set to be tried by court-martial in June after being relieved of command of the 19th Air Force at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, last year.
Saab recently teased a number of Swedish future fighter demonstrator concepts for the first time, as it continues working through studies of manned and unmanned aircraft designs ahead of Sweden’s procurement decision of a next generation aircraft by 2031.
Senior American and Arab officials are meeting this week in Riyadh to discuss security issues — the first such gathering since the war in Gaza began last year. The Gulf Cooperation Council—whose members include the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait—hosts a yearly set of defense working groups with the U.S.
The Manhattan Project, America’s nuclear bomb program, was one of the most expensive research and development undertakings of WWII. In total, the program cost about $2 billion, or nearly $30 billion in 2021 adjusted for inflation. However, there was one program that was 50 percent more expensive than the Manhattan Project: The B-29 Superfortress. It was pushed through though because it was necessary for the Manhattan Project to work and the war to be won.
