Airmen and F-35s deployed to the Middle East from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, increased the jet’s mission-capable rate during combat operations while helping guide the future of the jet’s complex maintenance logistics system. F-35s from Hill’s 4th Fighter Squadron deployed to Al Dhafra Air Base, United Arab Emirates, for six months last year. The jets almost instantly began conducting airstrikes while 70 percent of the fleet was able to conduct its mission, said Brig. Gen. David Abba, director of the Air Force’s F-35 Integration Office. By the end of the deployment, that rate had climbed to more than 90 percent. The jets flew 1,300 combat sorties over about 7,300 combat hours, and employed about 150 weapons.

Space policy experts at the Satellite 2020 conference argued overclassification of those systems makes it harder to achieve the procurement reforms that military space needs. Pentagon officials noted their collaboration with entities in the intelligence community helps keep those who need to be informed in the loop, like splitting acquisition authorities for certain programs between the Defense Department and the IC. But if the military can’t describe the threats facing the U.S. in space, and can’t talk about what technologies might be able to help, that silence could stymie outreach to commercial industry and hinder faster, cheaper, nontraditional approaches to developing and fielding new tools.

An undisclosed number of B-2 stealth bombers touched down March 9 at Lajes Field in Portugal for the latest bomber task force deployment to Europe. The Spirit bombers from the 509th Bomb Wing and 131st Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., deployed to the base with the help of KC-10s from the 305th Air Mobility Wing at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., according to a U.S. Air Forces in Europe release.

The United States killed six al-Shabab militants and wounded two others in a series of airstrikes carried out in the first week of March, U.S. Africa Command reported. Three of the strikes—two on March 2 and a third on March 5—targeted al-Shabab militants near Qunyo Barrow, Somalia. A fourth targeted one of the terror group’s camps near Gandarshe on March 7, the command said. AFRICOM alleges no civilians were harmed in the strikes.

Two U.S. service members died during a March 8 fight with Islamic State group militants in northern Iraq. The Americans were killed while advising and accompanying Iraqi security forces during a mission targeting an IS stronghold in a mountainous area, according to a March 9 U.S. Central Command release. Their names and service branches will not be released until their next of kin are notified.