Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles in a large-scale overnight attack, officials said Jan. 9, killing at least four people in the capital. For only the second time in the nearly 4-year-old war, it used a powerful, new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv’s NATO allies.
The U.S. conducted large-scale strikes against multiple Islamic State targets across Syria on Jan. 10, U.S. Central Command said. The strikes targeted at least 35 locations and included more than 90 precision munitions fired and more than 20 aircraft, a U.S. official told CBS News.
When the United States military launched an operation to fly directly into downtown Caracas and snatch Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, top U.S. officials noted that the invading force was met with limited ground-to-air fire—but they made no mention of any aerial resistance.
The Defense Department has selected Owen West, a former Wall Street trader and Marine, to lead its Defense Innovation Unit, the department’s highest-profile unit tasked with bringing startup technology into the U.S. military, according to two department officials.
One day after the United States attacked Venezuela and captured its ruler, Nicolás Maduro, beachgoers on the northwestern coast of Puerto Rico heard the rumbling noises of flying military aircraft overtake the peaceful sounds of waves lapping onto the shore.
High up in the Arctic, near the North Pole, Svalbard stands alone as a geopolitical unicorn. The cluster of islands is a part of Norway, but is also governed by a unique treaty dating from World War I. It allows just about anyone to take up a life there, visa-free.
Inside a sprawling, brightly lit factory in central Ukraine, a pair of launchers held up two massive cruise missiles with an unusual nickname: “the Flamingo.” Longer than a city bus and weighing nearly 7 tons, the Flamingo is at the center of Ukraine’s quest to build missiles domestically that can strike deep inside Russian territory. Doing so successfully would lessen the country’s reliance on its Western backers for its most powerful weapons.
To circumvent ever-more pervasive jamming of GPS satellite signals, the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit is launching a program to mature magnetic navigation (magnav) systems.
Navy pilots have successfully completed training to wield multiple drones from the cockpits of F-35 Lightning II fighter planes using touchscreen tablets. The landmark tactical exercise took place at the Pentagon’s Joint Simulation Environment at the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division in Maryland.
The National Security Agency on Jan. 9 announced Tim Kosiba as its deputy director, nine months after the Trump administration axed his predecessor—reportedly at the behest of a far-right activist.
Kratos has confirmed that the landing gear-equipped version of its XQ-58 Valkyrie drone being developed for the U.S. Marines will still be able to make rocket-assisted takeoffs from static launchers. This means the new addition to the stealthy Valkyrie family will retain a valuable degree of runway independence, though they will have to touch down on a runway at the end of their sortie.
The Air Force plans to bring an electronics warfare squadron to its combat aviation training center at Nellis Air Force Base. Earlier this week the Air Force announced that the 562nd Electronic Warfare Squadron would be based out of Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas starting in the coming months. The squadron, part of the 350th Spectrum Warfare Wing, will be tasked with streamlining electromagnetic spectrum operations at the Air Force Warfare Center at the base, the service said.
The U.S. Space Force announced Jan. 9 it awarded SpaceX nine national security space launch missions worth $739 million, issuing task orders under the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 1 program.
As the World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam War veteran population ages, fitting tributes and special programs honoring their service have become more prevalent in recent years. While it’s well deserved, the honors sometimes leave a younger generation of veterans, specifically from the post-9/11 wars, feeling left out.
