Time to Reset the F-35 Buy?

The Senate Armed Services wants the Pentagon to re-think how many F-35s it needs, according to Fiscal 2016 appropriations language reported out Wednesday. The F-35 total buy requirement was set “under very different strategic circumstances, nearly 20 years ago,” the...

Navy Bomber?

The Senate Armed Services Committee wants the Pentagon to hurry up and develop a stealthy, unmanned long-range strike aircraft … for the Navy. In its Fiscal 2016 appropriations report, released Wednesday, SASC directed the Defense Department to conduct competitive prototyping...

B-2 Upgrade Passes Critical Design Review

The first phase of the Flex Strike B-2 bomber improvements passed critical design review with the Air Force in February, Northrop Grumman announced Wednesday. The upgrade package, which among various improvements, will let the B-2 carry mixed loads of munitions...

Stoltenberg Slams “Dangerous” Russian Exercises

Russia is continuing to carry out large, dispersed snap military exercises, which have only increased security concerns across Eastern Europe, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday during a speech at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies....

Collective Defense and Transparency

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg sought to contrast Russia’s expanded snap military exercises with the Alliance’s re-commitment to collective defense activities, noting it is “striving to create transparency” in its expanded exercising. The Alliance’s largest exercise in 20 years, Exercise...

China Releases White Paper on Military Strategy

China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force will continue to bolster its capabilities for “strategic early warning, air strike, air and missile defense, information countermeasures, airborne operations, strategic projection, and comprehensive support” as it shifts its focus from a “territorial air...

Carter Heads to the Asia-Pacific

Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Wednesday began a 10-day trip to Hawaii, Singapore, Vietnam, and India—his second to the Asia-Pacific region since April. While in Hawaii, Carter will attend change-of-command ceremonies for US Pacific Command and US Pacific Fleet, said...

Minuteman III Flies from Vandy

Crew aboard an E-6B Mercury Airborne Command Post initiated the test launch of an inert Minuteman III ICBM from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., last week, Air Force Global Strike Command announced. Missileers and personnel of the 90th Missile Wing from F.E....

Russians Speed Bomber Upgrades

Russian officials now plan to complete modernization of the Tu-160 supersonic strategic bomber fleet in 2019—a year earlier than expected, IHS Jane’s reported. Aircraft upgraded to Tu-160M standards incorporate both modern avionics and new radar, in addition to expanded weapons...