President Donald Trump on May 28 announced he will extend the Title 32 orders of National Guard personnel activated to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic through the middle of August, ensuring thousands of Guardsmen will get access to certain federal benefits. As of the morning of May 28, more than 40,400 Air and Army National Guard members were battling the new coronavirus outbreak in a Title 32 capacity, the National Guard Bureau said. A legislative push to ensure Guard personnel activated until Title 32 orders in the war on COVID-19 and their families will get access to TRICARE health insurance coverage once their activations end is still underway, however.

The Pentagon has declared space a warfighting domain. A new Space Force is preparing to defend its assets from attack, and hit others if needed. But what, exactly, is a space weapon? A new report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies published May 27 tries to answer that question. Todd Harrison, director of CSIS’s Aerospace Security Project and the report’s author, puts space weapons into six categories: kinetic and non-kinetic Earth-to-space weapons like projectiles or jammers, dazzlers, and cyberattacks; kinetic and non-kinetic space-to-space weapons like on-orbit projectiles or microwaves; and kinetic and non-kinetic space-to-Earth weapons like jammers, lasers, or projectiles that come down from orbit.

Another fifth-generation wireless connectivity initiative will come to Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., as part of the Pentagon’s broader push into 5G research. The Defense Department announced May 28 its research and engineering branch will partner with the Air Force Warfare Center to build a 5G cellular network at Nellis for defense and civilian use. Officials aim to use the network for two main purposes—to set up 5G-enabled command and control operations and to practice chopping up the network into portions with different speeds and reliability levels needed for a range of uses, an approach known as network slicing.

Former Rep. Sam Johnson (R), a founder of the Air Force Caucus in Congress, a seven-year POW in Vietnam, a former Thunderbird, and a Korean War veteran, died May 27 in Plano, Texas, at age 89.

The Pentagon is rolling back some of its stringent restrictions on travel, allowing for more permanent change of station moves and deployments, saying the military’s largely been spared in the COVID-19 outbreak by the effectiveness of such measures. During a May 28 town hall, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and Chief Master Sgt. Ramon Colon-Lopez, the senior enlisted adviser to the Chairman, faced repeated questions from service members and families about the extended impact of the stop movement order. “There’s been a lot of death, pain, suffering throughout the entire country,” Milley said during the virtual town hall May 28. “So the Secretary and the Department of Defense took those measures that were very strict in order to protect the force and to protect the families. And it was exactly the right thing to do, and those efforts have proven to be effective.”

The Air Force delayed the date some Operational Camouflage Pattern and Two-Piece Flight Duty Uniform changes will become mandatory by two months to make life easier for USAF and Space Force troops during the pandemic, the Air Force Personnel Center announced May 27. Although the OCP uniform will still become mandatory next April, several OCP uniform changes, including rank insignia, as well as T-shirt, boot, and sock color, now will take effect Sept. 1.

On March 23, the Air Force Association's Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies will host a virtual Nuclear Deterrence Series event featuring Scowcroft Group Principal Frank Miller. At a time when nuclear modernization programs are accelerating around the world, proposals to recapitalize the U.S. nuclear arsenal are at the forefront of debates over defense spending. Miller will share his insights into the prospects for U.S. nuclear modernization programs and the value of nuclear deterrence in today's competitive security environment. The think tank will post event video on its website and YouTube page after the live event.