President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Sept. 2 said his country’s ties with China were at an “unprecedented” high as he met with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in a display of unity that they presented as a counterweight to the West.
At a test site in Costa Mesa, Calif., in a video posted this spring by the Air Force’s top general, hangar doors slid open for a great reveal. As dramatic electronic music pulsed, the video showcased one of the Air Force’s newest drones—and heralded an emerging sea change in the defense industry. ... But it wasn’t the defense industry’s biggest aviation companies, such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing or Northrop Grumman, behind the service’s first fighter drones. It was Anduril Industries and General Atomics, two smaller but growing firms, behind the drones dubbed YFQ-44 and YFQ-42, respectively.
Poland continues to prioritize the acquisition of “more fighters in a short future” but any movement on procuring 32 new fighter jets is on hold until a new, long-term capability plan has been approved, Maj. Gen. Cezary Wisniewski, deputy general commander of the Polish Armed Forces, told Breaking Defense.
The Space Force has been working closely with private investment firms to get a leg up on emerging technologies. The result is a “pool” of companies with products the service wants, a senior defense official says.
The U.S. Air Force’s top officer in the Pacific says a key takeaway from China’s huge military parade tomorrow will be that “we are not deterred.” Several new Chinese air combat drones and air and missile defense systems, as well as a host of other advanced capabilities, will be showcased at the event in Beijing. Air Force Gen. Kevin Schneider, head of Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), offered his own strategic signaling on the forthcoming Chinese parade during a virtual talk hosted today by the Air & Space Forces Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has approved sending up to 600 military lawyers to the Justice Department to serve as temporary immigration judges, according to a memo reviewed by The Associated Press. The military will begin sending groups of 150 attorneys—both military and civilian—“as soon as practicable,” and the military services should have the first round of people identified by next week, per the memo dated Aug. 27.
The Army has awarded a Lockheed Martin-led industry team an Other Transaction Authority agreement to help the service move toward a next-generation command and control architecture, officials announced Sept. 2. The NGC2 initiative aims to improve how the force passes data to commanders so they can make better and faster decisions on the battlefield. It’s one of the Army’s top modernization priorities, and troops have already begun experimenting with the technology at venues like Project Convergence.
On Sept. 3, President Trump said the U.S. military carried out a strike against a drug-carrying boat from Venezuela, escalating tensions with that country’s authoritarian government just days after the Pentagon deployed warships to the Caribbean to stop the flow of cocaine. “There's more where that came from,” Trump said in a news conference at the White House—promising further actions.
Two senior homeland security and cyber officials have left their roles at the Department of Defense in another shake-up at the executive department. Ashley Manning, the principal deputy assistant secretary of Defense for cyber policy, and Jonathan Owen, the acting deputy assistant secretary of Defense for homeland defense integration and defense support to civil authorities, have ‘moved on from their positions’ at the Pentagon, a U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Hill on Sept. 2.
NATO member Finland will phase out the swastika from its remaining military flags, national media reported. Finland’s air force command dropped the symbol in 2017, but some unit flags still show it. Colonel Tomi Böhm, commander of Finland’s Karelia Air Wing, said the emblems had caused ‘awkward situations’ with U.S. personnel—even though there was “no political pressure” to remove them. A flag renewal initiative launched in 2023 seeks to update the symbolism to better reflect the Air Force’s current identity.
