The Air Force is gearing up for “Future Games” later this month, which will explore new concepts and capabilities not already in the service's toolbox to help design the future force. Lt. Gen. S. Clinton Hinote, deputy chief of staff for strategy, integration, and requirements, said the latest iteration will feature palletized munitions, swarming UAVs, and scrutiny of the kill chain. It will also test some command and control concepts. Hinote said Airmen and “outside stakeholders” should brace for cuts to existing systems that are “good, ... that work,” in order to make room for new systems needed to stay abreast of world competitors.

Due to pandemic-related slowdowns, Lockheed Martin expects to deliver 122 F-35s in calendar year 2020—20 less than planned, company executive vice president for aeronautics Michele A. Evans said in a Sept. 9 interview. The tally will be gradually made up over two years, in order to avoid driving production capacity higher and then throttling it back. The program is near its planned maximum efficient rate. The company is striving to maintain the unit price even with Block 4 improvements added, but it's not yet clear if it can continue to drive the unit price lower. Evans also said she doesn't expect an F-35 Performance-Based Logistics contract until next year.

Three Airmen with the Tennessee Air National Guard’s 118th Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Group died Sept. 8 in a small aircraft crash near McMinnville, Tenn. The Airmen are: Lt. Col. Shelli Huether, the director of operations of the 118th Intelligence Support Squadron; Capt. Jessica Wright, the assistant director of operations for the 118th ISS; and Senior Master Sgt. Scott Bumpus, the chief of current operations for the 236th Intelligence Squadron. “Words can not begin to explain the shock, grief, pain, and dismay we feel having lost three remarkable members of our Guard family,” 118th Wing Commander Col. Todd A. Wiles said in a statement.

Air Force acquisition boss Will Roper on Sept. 10 made the case for closer collaboration between military services on artificial intelligence, saying the Pentagon must get the groundwork right in order to successfully expand so-called “smart” information technology across the department. “To really make AI real you have to do a lot of work that is not the glitzy algorithms doing cool things at the edge,” Roper said during a Pentagon-run AI conference. “You have to lay in the infrastructure.” Roper wants to pursue “AI as a service,” another iteration of the Air Force’s push in recent years to contract out business services.

U.S. forces in South Korea have not conducted theater-level exercises on the Korean Peninsula for about two years now, and pilots must leave the country for live-fire training, but the head of U.S. Forces Korea said Sept. 10 his readiness remains high despite the challenges. The U.S. military suspended bilateral exercises with South Korea following the June 2018 summit between President Donald J. Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. Since then, USFK has kept its bilateral, strategic-level training focused on table-top events, with local units flying and conducting smaller level training. This has forced commanders to get creative in these training events to try to maintain readiness and interoperability with South Korea, USFK boss Army Gen. Robert B. Abrams said during a Center for Strategic and International Studies webinar.

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.