Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, has identified the pilot killed in a mishap Nov. 19 involving two T-38C jets. Second Lt. Anthony D. Wentz, 23, of Falcon, Colo., a student pilot with the 47th Student Squadron, was killed in the mishap on a runway of the Texas base.
Two years after its redesignation, the Air Force’s cyber component is making headway thwarting digital adversaries. Located at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, the 16th Air Force—which was redesignated as Air Forces Cyber in October 2019—focuses on cyber and electronic warfare, signals intelligence, information operations, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. The organization has now reached full operational capability.
The US Space Force and its like-minded counterparts are increasingly eyeing ways to avoid duplicating capabilities, with the American service setting up a series of agreements in hopes of each country bringing its best hand to the fight. "The key to success is frank and open discussion ... tearing down those information sharing barriers, to be sure that we're truly interoperable," said Australian Air Commodore Nicholas Hogan.
“Andrei Ilnitsky, an advisor to the Russian defense minister, maintains that the U.S. is waging a ‘psychological war’ against Russia. If only. Since the Cold War, America’s use of psychological operations, or psyops, has deteriorated amid a fixation on hard power. Russia, meanwhile, has achieved its greatest successes through psychological warfare. It is long past time for the U.S. military to catch up, update its psyops against Russia for the 21st century, and revive its once-robust tradition of winning hearts and minds,” writes Ivana Stradner, a visiting research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
The Department of Veterans Affairs would get about $5 billion to update aging facilities, lease more medical buildings, add residents to its medical staff, and more under a major social spending bill passed by the House.
The 13 U.S. service members killed in a suicide bombing in Kabul in August are on track to receive Congress' highest honor after the Senate unanimously approved posthumously awarding them the Congressional Gold Medal. “Today, the United States Senate moved to recognize the courage, sacrifice, and service of the 13 brave young men and women who were killed in Afghanistan,” Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) said in a press release. “During a pivotal point for our nation, they gave the last full measure for our freedoms. I look forward to the president honoring these American heroes and swiftly signing this bill into law.”
The Senate confirmed President Joe Biden’s pick for ambassador to NATO, Julianne Smith, by a voice vote Thursday after Sen. Josh Hawley removed his objection to the nomination. Hawley (R-Mo.) said he had lifted his procedural hold on Smith after she sent him a letter agreeing to seek an increase of NATO’s defense spending target. Member nations have agreed to spend a minimum of 2 percent of their gross domestic products on defense.
Members of the 34th Special Operations Squadron recently deployed to Robins Air Force Base, Ga., to validate the unit’s ability to generate combat capability under the new Special Operations Force Generation model. SOFORGEN replaces the current Air Expeditionary Force construct with a 20-month cycle comprising four, five-month phases of readiness.
A Lockheed Martin executive says discussions continue with the Spanish government about a potential future order of F-35Bs and F-35As despite a firm denial by Madrid. “They have an aircraft carrier, and they’re going to have to replace the Harrier, so our approach into Spain is really through that,” Lockheed Martin Executive Vice President Greg Ulmer told ShowNews on Nov.16 at the Dubai Airshow. “Obviously, we see the [F-35] B-model to be that,” Ulmer added, referring to the short-takeoff and vertical-landing variant. “We’re also talking to them about potentially A-models as well.”
Space industry executives grappled with a simulated crisis as a hacker compromised a satellite and set it on a collision course with another, creating the possibility of a disastrous cascade of space debris. The collision was averted—but the fictional scenario underscored the very real cybersecurity threats facing the space industry as the number of companies building and operating software-driven satellites has mushroomed.
When Angela first suggested they get married aboard the aircraft, Tech Sgt. Jonathen Guzik’s first thought was, “no chance,” according to a recent Air Force news release. An aircraft metals technician with the Guard’s 167th Maintenance Group, Guzik spends a lot of time working with C-17s, and knowing how tight security around a flight line is, he thought it would be tough to actually coordinate a ceremony aboard one. But Angela, a Navy brat, was excited about the idea. “Everything went off without a hitch,” she said. “It went great and we’re super happy.”