Saudi Arabia on Jan. 27 ruled out the use of its airspace and territory for a potential U.S. attack on Iran, complicating the Trump administration’s options in response to Tehran’s violent crackdown against Iranian protesters. The Saudi move follows a similar statement Jan. 26 by the United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministry.
With the recent passage of the 2026 NDAA, we’re digging into one of the biggest questions facing U.S. national security right now: if defense spending rises toward $1.5 trillion in 2027, what should that money actually deliver—especially for the U.S. Space Force?
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Jan. 28 that the United States was not in a “state of war” with Venezuela and that the Trump administration does not “intend” to take further military action there, tempering previous threats to again use lethal force unless the interim government in Caracas grants Washington unfettered access to its oil industry and expels U.S. adversaries, including Russia, Iran, and China.
President Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops across major U.S. cities has cost taxpayers nearly half a billion dollars through the end of 2025, according to a new report from the Congressional Budget Office.
The Space Development Agency’s program to develop a Tracking Layer constellation of missile warning/tracking satellites in low-Earth orbit is in danger of failing to meet both its own goals and the needs of operators, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office.
Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of U.S. Space Command, called for a foundational pivot to maneuver-based space operations to echo how the rest of the Joint Force fights—including increased investment in enabling technologies such as refueling, repair, and on-orbit logistics, as well as new scaled-up exercises.
The U.S. Space Force is positioning its Space Warfighter Operational Readiness Domain, or SWORD, as a cornerstone for maintaining space superiority in an increasingly contested domain.
A new “non-kinetic effects cell” has helped push cyber operations to the forefront of specialized U.S. military missions such as the capture of Venezuela's leader in the capital of Caracas, a top official told lawmakers Jan. 28.
Air Combat Command has established a team that will help develop and validate enhanced tactics, techniques and procedures for protecting U.S. military installations from small unmanned aerial systems.
As U.S. President Donald Trump is again touting a “massive armada” of ships heading to the Middle East amid growing tensions with Iran, more assets continue to pour into the region, including an electronic intelligence collection plane.
“Another element in the U.S. Air Force’s plans for long-range operations, essential for Asia-Pacific deterrence, may have emerged from under cover of secrecy. It looks like we’ve just got a good view of a shadowy uncrewed aircraft designed to fly far and slip into an enemy’s defended zone, undetected until it starts jamming radars. Quite likely, it would carry missiles to knock out radars,” writes veteran aviation reporter Bill Sweetman.
In its modernization quest to pursue system attributes over platforms, the Air Force is using advanced war gaming powered by artificial intelligence to help define exactly what it’s looking for. Thomas Lawhead, assistant deputy chief of staff for strategy, integration and requirements for the Air Force, said the service is working on a concept called WarMatrix that brings an AI cloud-based system into its wargaming capability.
NASA has confirmed that crew members are safe after one of its three WB-57 Canberra high-altitude research aircraft made an emergency gear-up landing in Texas. N927NA, the most recent addition to NASA’s fleet of high-altitude research aircraft that trace their lineage back to the English Electric Canberra, was seen in video footage making a gear-up landing at its home station of Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base in Houston, Texas.
