Northrop Grumman wants to expand its market share as a supplier to munitions providers, with ongoing discussions about increasing its work on eight different weapons programs, its chief executive said Sept. 17.
Boeing’s 737 MAX will have a new operator: the U.S. Air Force. The service confirmed Sept. 16 that it will buy the new aircraft from Boeing using $250 million from the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act that was authorized to expand the capabilities of its C-40 fleet. This would be the first military variant of the aircraft.
A memo signed out by Deputy Secretary of Defense Stephen Feinberg this week is the latest in the Pentagon’s attempt to streamline defense acquisition, but also serves as a corrective to a previous declaration that had concerned industry, analysts tell Breaking Defense.
Space Force modernization efforts could slow if Congress doesn’t pass a full budget at the end of the year, the service’s leaders said. “We're on this ramp-up, right, consistent with our overall strategy and the recognition that the space domain is a critical domain, in and of itself, but also for the joint force,” Erich Hernandez-Baquero, the Space Force’s top buyer, told reporters Sept. 15. “Now we're going to run into [fiscal year 2027]—and you saw that our budget request was to continue on that—and this [continuing resolution] is definitely going to put the brakes on that for a time period.”
The Space Force is making headway on two efforts the service says will modernize how the Defense Department tracks airborne and ground-based moving targets.
The Air Force is looking for a “ground-based, medium-caliber gun weapon system” to defend air bases from small drones, big drones, and subsonic cruise missiles. ... On Sept. 3, the Air Force posted a Request for Information, or RFI, seeking a new ground-based, medium-caliber gun weapon system. An RFI is more about conducting market research than putting real weapons in operators’ hands, but it shows what kind of weapons the Air Force is looking for.
The U.S. Department of State said on Sept. 17 it has approved the potential sale of Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning II fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, as the kingdom is drawn deeper into war in the Middle East.
The Air Force and Space Force plan to rehire for thousands of civilian jobs in critical national security fields after acknowledging that they cut staff below “established requirements” in 2026. The Department of the Air Force is looking to add back more than 4,300 full-time civilian jobs across 30 specialties in the Active-Duty Air Force and Space Force and the Air National Guard, at a cost of $291 million, according to a Federal News Network analysis of the department’s fiscal 2027 funding request.
Tensions are mounting between the Pentagon and Congress over the flow of information to lawmakers about the U.S. military’s priorities, with both Democrats and Republicans accusing a Defense Department leader of being frustratingly opaque.
CBS News has learned that Iranian forces took down at least two American MQ-1 unmanned aircraft in recent days, according to U.S. officials familiar with the incident.
General Motors has entered the missile business. The automaker is supplying parts for Lockheed Martin’s Patriot missiles, the military contractor said Sept. 17—a potential lift to U.S. munitions supplies depleted by the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
It’s been a problem as long as the existence of modern communications: Despite the need for commands to have accurate contact information for military spouses, some service members, military wives, or husbands simply don’t want to be reached.
