The two-war force-sizing construct should be restored in the next National Defense Strategy being developed by the Biden administration, according to a new paper from the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. The authors argued that a one-war capacity invites adversaries to take advantage of U.S. involvement in one theater by launching an attack in another. The risk is increasing that China and Russia could achieve a fait accompli in Taiwan and the Baltics, respectively, if the U.S. clings to old models of deployment and outmoded ways to spend limited resources.

NATO nations are increasing defense spending following “persistent, consistent” messaging from the United States as the alliance also faces an assertive Russia and looks to deter China's expanding influence. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, speaking June 15 with a group of Washington, D.C.-based reporters, said 10 member nations now meet NATO's 2 percent-of-gross-domestic-product spending goal, with more expected to meet the mark soon. Stoltenberg met this week with President Joe Biden and other NATO leaders, and the message to increase spending continued, albeit slightly differently after years of former President Donald J. Trump criticizing the alliance. “This style may differ, but the content of the message is the same, and that is that allies need to invest more in defense. We need fair burden sharing,” Stoltenberg said.

The Air Force Thunderbirds' 2021 airshow season will include the first overhauled performance in about 38 years. It also marks the beginning of a culture change for a team that in recent years has experienced some of its lowest points. Col. John Caldwell, Thunderbirds commander and No. 1 pilot, said during a June 15 Air Force Association Air and Space Warfighters in Action event, that his team is one of the highest visibility squadrons in the Air Force, performing about 240 days a year before millions of people. But the team’s performance over the years had become a “hodgepodge” of individual tweaks, none of which came together to give it an overall theme. “We wanted to turn this from a series of athletic maneuvers like the Harlem Globetrotters to more of a performance like the Cirque du Soleil, where it has themes. It has coherency. It has themes that make sense and that we can tie music and narration into,” he said.

Multilateralism and norms of behavior in space should be priorities in any future arms control negotiations, senior military leaders told Congress on June 15. The response to questions from Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) came the day before U.S. President Joe Biden is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a highly-anticipated summit amid rising tensions between the two great powers.