The nominee to take over the role of director of operational test and evaluation for the Pentagon told lawmakers Oct. 19 that lessons from the KC-46 and F-35 will prove useful to the testing community in the years to come. Guertin wrote in response to the Senate panel’s advanced policy questions that “digital technology, including strategic use of modeling and simulation, should be used much more frequently” to provide quicker, more incremental updates for systems. He also told the committee, “It’s especially important that the systems are tested the way they will be operated." 

Across the defense establishment, officials have declined to comment on a report that China fielded a nuclear-capable hypersonic weapon in August, but defense policy nominee Alexandra Baker told senators Oct. 19 there was a “sense of urgency” for the Defense Department to develop similar capabilities. For two days, DOD officials representing U.S. Space Command, the Pentagon, and the Defense Secretary declined to comment directly on the alleged Chinese capability, but senators were eager for information about the report during Baker's nomination hearing.

Laying a wreath for fallen Ukrainian soldiers in the ongoing war with Russia, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III in Kyiv on Oct. 19 voiced support for the 30-year-old democracy, but Ukraine security experts say the Biden administration naively falls short and leaves Ukraine open to Russian invasion. "This administration is eager to have these predictable and stable relations with Russia,” a Ukrainian security expert and former diplomat said of President Joe Biden’s stated goals with his Russian counterpart. “They are not going to irritate [Putin] by boosting support and military hardware, or with the integration vis a vis NATO.”

No sooner had the Defense Intelligence Agency issued its North Korean Military Power report, in which it predicted Pyongyang would resume ballistic missile tests, than North Korea did exactly that, lofting a submarine-launched ballistic missile Oct. 19. The test, in which an SLBM launched from the port of Sinpo into the Sea of Japan, was detected and characterized by South Korea, which said the missile attained an altitude of about 40 miles, traveling about 280 miles downrange. Japan said two missiles were fired. The report reiterates DIA’s previously stated assessment that North Korea is focusing on ballistic missiles—and its nuclear program—to deter the U.S. from an attack.