Defense One
The Pentagon is in the midst of a massive, multi-year effort to better adapt to climate change and reduce greenhouse emissions. But the changing climate is already imposing costs on the military and even challenging how well it can prepare to fight other nation states. “In terms of current operations, we have National Guardsmen, we have Active-duty Soldiers, we have Active-duty Airmen right now participating in firefighting support efforts. So these are ... folks who are not doing a primary job,” said Richard Kidd, the deputy assistant defense secretary for environment and energy resilience.
FedScoop
The military’s No. 2 officer, Gen. John Hyten, wants more from the defense industrial base, saying contractors need to deliver more timely capabilities that offer “integrated deterrence.” In remarks made Aug. 11, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said industry can support new concepts such as Joint Warfighting more effectively. The comments come as Hyten prepares to retire from the military in November after four decades in uniform.
The Drive
The 10 Percent True YouTube channel recently had Denny Jarvi on as a guest. Jarvi was an accomplished Air Force fighter pilot who found himself descending into the shadowy black projects world in the early 1980s to help run the top-secret Battlefield Surveillance Aircraft-Experimental (BSAX) demonstrator program, better known as Tacit Blue. In the interview, Jarvi gives a frank account of many of the finer details of what is understood to have been one of the most transformational secret aircraft test programs in known history, although it is often overshadowed by Lockheed’s Have Blue stealth demonstrator that came before it.
Breaking Defense
The next “strategic directive” from the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) instructing the services how to shape future forces will focus on “integrated air and missile defense,” says Joint Chiefs Vice Chair Gen. John Hyten. As a first step, he told the annual Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Ala., on Aug. 11, that JROC will do a “capability gap assessment of everything in that portfolio” to be completed sometime in the fall—and which will be folded into the Defense Department’s ongoing Missile Defense Review.
DOD release
For service members who have religious objections to receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, the path for how they might seek an exception to the vaccine is defined by their individual military service’s regulations, Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby said during a meeting with the media Aug. 10. “There is a religious exemption possibility for any mandatory vaccine, and there’s a process that we go through to counsel the individual both from a medical and from a command perspective about using a religious exemption,” Kirby said.
The Times of Israel
The Israeli military announced Aug. 10 that it had completed a first-of-a-kind aerial exercise with U.S. Air Force Central Command, simulating various operational scenarios in Israel’s skies. During the drill, dubbed Desert Eagle, the Israeli Air Force’s 133rd Squadron trained alongside the US Air Force’s 494th Squadron at the Ovda air base in southern Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
One More Thing
Air Force release
The Department of Air Force Gaming League is back for another season with more games and prizes while expanding the community to include Air Force veterans and wounded warriors. After an inaugural season, in which more than 15,000 Active-duty Airmen and Guardians competed, the Air Force Services Center is rolling out several initiatives to expand its e-gaming program.
