The Israeli military announced on June 16 a “tactical pause” throughout daytime hours in parts of southern Gaza to free up a backlog of humanitarian aid deliveries destined for desperate Palestinians enduring a humanitarian crisis sparked by the war with Hamas. The daily pause announced by the military applies to about 7.4 miles of road in the Rafah area. However, fighting in the city of Rafah, where Israel is targeting the remaining brigades of Hamas militants, would continue, the military said.
“The Air Force’s new Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program is so massively over budget and behind schedule that it must be bailed out by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin before July 9 or face termination. In either case, U.S. nuclear forces would remain sufficient to deter any adversary, including Russia and China, from a nuclear strike,” write academics Sébastien Philippe, Sharon K. Weiner, and Frank N. von Hippel.
In episode 188 of the Aerospace Advantage, Heather Penney chats with 317th Airlift Wing Commander Col. Thomas Lankford. Based at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, and equipped with C-130Js, the men and women of the 317th are executing their missions in one of the most transformational eras regarding air mobility. After three decades of operating in relatively permissive environments, much of it in regionally focused theaters, new mission demands in the Pacific and beyond require Airmen to develop new tactics, techniques, and procedures to ensure necessary personnel, equipment, and supplies get to the point of need.
Japan’s defense chief said June 14 that Japanese and American V-22 Ospreys are being safely operated in his country, and that he has no plans to request a flight suspension despite restrictions in the U.S. where ongoing safety and performance assessments will continue until next year.
European allies are ramping up pressure on the Biden administration to further loosen restrictions on Ukraine’s use of U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia, arguing that the limits still in place hurt Kyiv’s ability to defend itself.
Boeing’s long-delayed Air Force One replacement, known as the VC-25B, is facing new headwinds as the first flight for the program has now been pushed back another 16 months to March 2026, an Air Force spokesperson told Breaking Defense. Although the program’s schedule was rebaselined in 2022, it appears even more delays lay ahead.
The Defense Department’s advanced missile tracking satellites logged their first views of a hypersonic flight test this week, according to the Missile Defense Agency. MDA didn’t disclose the date of the flight, which took off from Wallops Island in Virginia.
Maj. Gen. Paul Stanton has been nominated to be the next director of the Defense Information Systems Agency and commander of Joint Force Headquarters-Department of Defense Information Network, the Pentagon announced June 14. If confirmed, Stanton will pin on his third star with the new role.
Portland’s 142nd Wing/123rd Fighter Squadron, the “Redhawks,” received its first F-15EX Eagle II, bringing a whole new level of capabilities and operational potential to the renowned Air National Guard fighter unit. But receiving a new jet and integrating it into a wing’s operations, as well as blazing the trail for all other F-15EX units that will follow, is easier said than done.
The Senate Armed Services Committee has included a provision in its version of a must-pass defense bill that would allow the Air Force to bypass state governors in transferring certain space-focused National Guard units into the active-duty Space Force, but with some exceptions.
Taiwan’s lawmaking arm, the Legislative Yuan, says U.S. and French delegations visited in 2023 to brief the military on aerial tanker capabilities and options for the country’s Air Force.
A rescue helicopter crew and two pararescuemen from the Alaska Air National Guard found six survivors of a small plane crash—including two with severe injuries—deep in a remote national park, far from any roads in early June.
