What Does It Take to Ace the New Air Force Fitness Test?
Eleven members of the Air Force Honor Guard recently practiced taking the service's new fitness test. Here's what they have to share about the two-mile run, the HAMR, and more.
After the B-52? Air Force to Study More Heavy Bomber Options
The Air Force is about to start considering alternatives for eventually replacing the B-52 Stratofortress, even as it prepares to upgrade the decades-old aircraft to a J-model featuring new engines, landing gear, avionics, and radar.
Smaller AIM-9X Could Give Drone Wingmen More Firepower
A combined Navy and Air Force program is seeking to build a smaller version of a ubiquitous air-to-air missile that could give advanced aircraft, such as the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, greater magazine depth in a high-end fight.
Missile Defense Agency Plans Counter-Hypersonic Test in Fiscal 2027
The Missile Defense Agency plans to test its ability to track and take down a hypersonic missile, staging a test flight in fiscal 2027 called “Project Maverick.”
Air Force to Field Cruise Missiles on Cargo Plane Pallets in 2027
A yearslong effort to find an affordable way to turn cargo planes into strike platforms is now an official program with anticipated fielding in 2027.
Radar Sweep
First-of-Its-Kind Electromagnetic Spectrum Exercise Tests Senior Leaders in Arctic Conditions
Breaking Defense
For the first time, the Joint Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations Center hosted a tabletop event for senior leaders to examine what it means to operate within the electromagnetic spectrum environment.
Munitions at Risk? Inside the Pentagon’s $350B Gamble
Breaking Defense
Recent Congressional moves on reconciliation have pushed the Pentagon’s $350 billion request indefinitely down the road, and raise the specter that a major part of the department’s funding plan—vital to ramping up munitions production and the Golden Dome missile shield—might not materialize.
Pentagon OIG Partners with Justice Department’s New Government Fraud-Hunting Team
DefenseScoop
The Pentagon’s inspector general recently met with the Justice Department’s first-ever assistant attorney general for the national fraud enforcement division to explore opportunities for their teams to cooperate more closely on efforts to confront increasingly complex scams impacting the Defense Department and military.
Drone Swarms Packed into Unassuming Containers Sought by DARPA
The War Zone
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is asking for concepts for drones with a high degree of autonomous operation, as well as remotely-operated containerized systems to launch, recover, and otherwise support them.
Air Force Overhauls Basic Training to Build ‘Airminded’ Warfighters
Military.com
The U.S. Air Force is undertaking what leaders describe as its most significant overhaul of basic military training in more than seven decades. Maj. Gen. Davidson told Military.com that the effort is designed to fundamentally change how new Airmen think about their role in war.
Military Space Boom Meets Beltway Friction
SpaceNews
Washington is about to pour money into military space at a scale the industry has not seen in decades. The Trump administration’s fiscal year 2027 defense budget would more than double funding for the U.S. Space Force to more than $71 billion, turning what has been a steady growth story into something closer to a blockbuster surge.
Iran War Hangs Over China Summit
The Wall Street Journal
As the heads of the world’s two superpowers meet in Beijing this week, President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will have another nation looming over their summit: Iran.
Iran Responds to US Ceasefire Proposal but Trump Rejects It as ‘Unacceptable’
The Associated Press
Iran sent its response to the latest U.S. proposal to end the Iran war via Pakistani mediators on May 10, but U.S. President Donald Trump quickly rejected it in a social media post as “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!”—the latest setback to efforts to resolve the standoff in the Persian Gulf that has throttled shipping and sent energy prices soaring.
US Military Kills 2 ‘Narco-Terrorists’ in Latest Strike on Alleged Drug Boat
The Hill
The U.S. military conducted a lethal strike on another alleged drug-trafficking boat in the eastern Pacific on May 7, killing two suspected “narco-terrorists,” according to U.S. Southern Command.
Putin Says He Thinks Russia-Ukraine War Is Coming to an End
Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on May 8 that he thought the Ukraine war was coming to an end, remarks that came just hours after he had vowed victory in Ukraine at Moscow's most scaled-back Victory Day parade in years.
PODCAST: Want to Reset the Air Force? Lessons from the Reagan Build-Up
The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies
President Trump's defense spending boost presents major opportunities for the Air Force. However, it's been nearly four decades since the service has seen this level of investment. We chat with retired Gen. Ron Fogleman, the 15th Chief of Staff of the Air Force, and retired Gen. Mike Loh, who served as Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force and the first commander of Air Combat Command, to learn how they tackled this challenge during the Reagan-era build up.
Pentagon Releases Declassified UFO Files Including Videos and Photos Held by the Government for Decades
NBC News
The Pentagon on May 7 began releasing “never-before-seen” files relating to unidentified anomalous phenomena—previously and more infamously known as unidentified flying objects, or UFOs—that the government has been holding onto for decades.