Daily Report

July 10, 2025

Space Force Adjusts as Commerce Cuts Space Traffic Management Program

The first Trump administration moved to relieve the Space Force of its burden to monitor and warn civilian space operators about potential space traffic hazards. But now, just as the Commerce Department’s new Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS) program is nearly ready, the second Trump administration is looking to cancel it. The Space Force is pushing back.

DARPA Picks Bell Textron for New Runway-less Drone X-Plane

Bell Textron has won DARPA's contest for a no-runway, high-speed drone that will prove out technologies useful for special operations forces and possibly the Air Force's Agile Combat Employment concept. Bell's design converts a tiltrotor to a jet-powered aircraft able to fly at up to 450 knots.

Radar Sweep

Lawmakers Want Anti-Drone Systems at US Defense Facilities

Military.com

The draft defense authorization bill that the House Armed Services Committee plans to mark up in the coming days would require the Pentagon to set up counter-drone defenses at a handful of military-related facilities inside the United States.

Gift link

A Syrian Death Factory Gives Up Its Secrets

The Wall Street Journal

Under the Assad regime, Saydnaya prison became a mass-killing machine. The fact that the survivors are now able to speak openly, allowing their names and faces to be published, shows how the collapse of the regime has transformed Syrian society. The men who ended up in Saydnaya during the war included military deserters and defectors, rebel soldiers, and peaceful activists.

DARPA Ends Cargo Seaplane Program, Eyes New Uses for Tech

Air Force Times

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has ended its experiment to create a heavy cargo seaplane. The nearly three-year-old Liberty Lifter program was intended to design and build—and possibly float and fly—a long-range, low-cost seaplane that could take off and land in rough seas.

OPINION: Air Force Mission in Iran Was Successful, but We Must Be Clear-Eyed As to Why

USA Today

Our B-2 bombers, along with other aircraft, flew deep into Iranian territory without resistance. In modern wars against adversaries such as China, we know the threat will be much different. In those cases, we know there is no guarantee of the “air superiority” our crews experienced during Operation Midnight Hammer without significant investment in airpower.

One More Thing

The Army Has Realized That Horses Are No Longer Good for ‘Warfighting’

Task & Purpose

Goodbye, horses, the Army’s over you. The Army is drastically scaling back its Military Working Equid program, the Army term for the service’s contingent of horses, donkeys, and mules. Why the drawdown? According to the Army, it’s “to align more resources with warfighting capability and readiness.”