Military.com
At least 48 service members in the Army and Marine Corps are trying to help 509 relatives evacuate from Afghanistan more than a month after the U.S. military withdrawal, a retired Marine Corps officer, working with several private veterans groups trying to evacuate Afghans, told Military.com.
FedScoop
The General Services Administration and the Department of Defense have continued to award spots for prime contractors on the 10-year ASTRO procurement. The DOD is the largest sponsor of ASTRO, which is focused on procuring unmanned systems, robotics, and platforms, as well as the services that support such systems.
Military Times
A group of election security experts is urging lawmakers to drop plans in the annual defense authorization bill that would allow online ballot casting for troops serving overseas, saying the security concerns outweigh the potential benefits. “There are solutions to improve military and overseas voting without expanding dangerously insecure voting technology,” the group wrote in a letter to members of the Senate Armed Services Committee this week.
Breaking Defense
Even with the fielding of the Army’s future vertical lift capabilities years away, the service is adjusting how it trains its aviators to prepare them for new tactics, techniques, and procedures for future wars. For the last 20 years of counterterrorism operations, Army rotorcraft have operated at higher altitudes in battle. But on the future battlefield, the Army will fly in the lower tier of airspace to avoid the anti-access/area denial capabilities of advanced adversaries such as China and Russia.
Air Force Times
Newly obtained documents offer a clearer picture of an F-22 Raptor’s demise in Florida last year when it crashed near Eglin Air Force Base during training with other fighter jets. The F-22 grew increasingly wobbly upon takeoff, wouldn't turn left, and shortly barrel-rolled into the ground after its pilot safely ejected, according to the Air Force’s investigation into the May 15, 2020, incident that was not previously made public.
Voice of America
For decades, the United States' military has benefited from having air superiority over its enemies in all its conflicts around the world. The Pentagon's multibillion-dollar investment in advanced warplanes, weapons systems, satellites, and aircraft carriers has made air power a central part of America's global projection of military might. However, China's People's Liberation Army is rapidly modernizing, and military leaders and analysts say Washington may no longer be able to always rely on its air superiority.
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The Wall Street Journal
The State Department plans to resume regular evacuation flights from Afghanistan before the end of the year to help U.S. citizens, residents, and some visa applicants leave the country, a senior State Department official said, an effort that will require coordination with the Taliban and other governments.
SpaceNews
Orbit Fab, a venture-funded startup offering a refueling service in space, has signed a technology sharing agreement with the Air Force Research Laboratory, the company announced Oct. 13. Under the cooperative research and development agreement, known as a CRADA, Orbit Fab will share technical details of its in-space refueling port known as RAFTI, short for Rapidly Attachable Fluid Transfer Interface.
SpaceNews
Military recruiters today are being challenged by demographic trends showing a declining population of young people who are eligible and willing to serve. As a new military service, the Space Force is still working on a recruiting strategy to attract the best and the brightest. The results so far are promising, said Maj. Gen. Ed Thomas, commander of the Air Force Recruiting Service.
One More Thing
DOD release
The Joint Chiefs of Staff have, figuratively, unsheathed a new sword on the Joint Staff's seal: the Space Force. The seal has been revised to include the Space Force. The change is the first to the "JCS identification badge" since it was established in 1963. "Prior to that, members of the Joint Staff wore the DOD identification badge—the one members of that staff still wear," said David B. Crist, the JCS historian.
