For the second time in eight days, a fighter jet was lost in the Red Sea after the aircraft went overboard from the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier Tuesday, two U.S. officials told NBC News. ... The two aviators aboard ejected after the failed landing, in which the aircraft failed to catch the wire, known as a "failed arrestment," one of the officials said.
India said it conducted military strikes on nine sites in Pakistan in retaliation for a deadly militant attack on tourists in Kashmir, intensifying a confrontation between the nuclear-armed neighbors. ... Pakistan’s defense minister told a local news channel that Pakistan shot down five Indian aircraft. The Indian foreign ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment.
“President Xi Jinping of China is believed to have ordered his armed forces to be prepared to invade Taiwan by 2027, if necessary, raising the specter of a catastrophic military conflict in the next few years that would almost inevitably draw in the United States. But an ongoing purge by Mr. Xi of his top military ranks casts doubt on that deadline and, in the longer term, whether he can trust his generals to successfully wage war,” write Phillip C. Saunders and Joel Wuthnow of the China Center at the Institute for National Strategic Studies at National Defense University.
The U.S. military is facing an evolved threat in the form of a “fusion” of different adversaries, but with that danger comes a potential “renaissance” for special operations forces, two senior-most special ops leaders told the SOF Week conference May 6.
The U.S. Space Force awarded a $259 million contract to New Jersey-based software specialist SciTec to further develop a ground system for military missile-warning satellites, Space Systems Command announced May 6. The contract is part of the Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution (FORGE) program, which seeks to build a government-owned ground system for missile warning satellite command and control.
Roughly a week after Donald Trump started his second term as president, the U.S. military issued an order to three freight airlines operating out of Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and a U.S. base in Qatar: Stop 11 flights loaded with artillery shells and other weaponry and bound for Ukraine. In a matter of hours, frantic questions reached Washington from Ukrainians in Kyiv and from officials in Poland, where the shipments were coordinated. Who had ordered the U.S. Transportation Command, known as TRANSCOM, to halt the flights? Was it a permanent pause on all aid? Or just some?
The Leidos Black Arrow, also known as the Small Cruise Missile, is being proposed for launch from ground and naval platforms, the manufacturer has confirmed. Leidos also disclosed to TWZ the range of the weapon, 400 nautical miles, putting it very much at the upper end of what had been expected. Only last month, Leidos announced that the missile had completed a guided flight test from an AC-130J Ghostrider gunship.
About 3,000 union workers for Pratt & Whitney in Connecticut have gone on strike, including machinists involved in the manufacture of the F-35’s engine, but the company says it has “contingency plans in place to maintain operations.”
The Missile Defense Agency is facing a roughly three-year delay in its plan to deliver an interceptor capable of defeating a hypersonic weapon in the glide phase of flight, according to its director. In an attempt to mitigate the delay, the agency truncated a competitive development effort years’ early, choosing one team to go it alone to design and build the Glide Phase Interceptor. But the program’s reduced funding levels have still slowed down the program, MDA confirmed in a May 6 statement to Defense News.
The Supreme Court on May 6allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to enforce a ban on transgender people in the military, while legal challenges proceed. The court acted in the dispute over a policy that presumptively disqualifies transgender people from military service and could lead to the expulsion of experienced, decorated officers.
DOGE won’t get unfettered access to service members’ personal data, the Trump administration’s pick to lead defense personnel vowed Tuesday at a confirmation hearing where questions largely concerned his history of inflammatory comments.
Democratic lawmakers are asking Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to share plans for cuts to civilian faculty members at the military academies and war colleges. ... The letter drew on Gazette reporting highlighting the coming cuts to civilian faculty and staff at the Air Force Academy and it could hurt technical majors. West Point and the Naval Academy have not announced cuts and did not respond to Gazette requests about whether the schools are planning cuts.
"The US Space Force - America's Invisible Front Line" is a 20-minute documentary film that covers the criticality of space to our national security, the economy, and our daily lives. It describes Space Force mission areas, locations, and personnel. It also focuses on the importance of space superiority in conflict and the distinct role the Space Force plays in it.
