CNN
As the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations surpasses those during the delta variant surge over the summer and fall, more states are enacting emergency protocols to deal with growing staff shortages at hospitals. States such as Ohio, Maryland, Delaware, and Georgia have mobilized National Guard members to assist with patient care.
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Wall Street Journal
Small, cheap drones are the most concerning new tactical threat to face the U.S. military since the rise of improvised explosive devices in Iraq some 15 years ago, according to the head of U.S. Central Command, Marine Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. Emerging solutions resemble the stuff of science fiction, from laser zappers to microwave blasters.
Defense News
Air Force deployments could soon begin to look a little different as the service transitions to a new schedule for training and dispatching forces around the world. Under the new plan, Airmen would spend a year on local and large-scale training before becoming available to head overseas. Deployments as part of Defense Secretary-directed operations, regular rotations through Air Force military hubs in other countries, or other ready-response forces would last another six months—like normal deployments now.
Military.com
Residents of military housing on Oahu have filed a potential class-action lawsuit against their property management companies after fuel was found in their tap water, driving them from their homes. The lawsuit, filed Dec. 31 in Hawaii's First Circuit Court, alleges that the companies failed to honor their residential leases, guaranteeing their tenants potable water and habitable housing.
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Reuters
U.S. military bases in Japan introduced stricter COVID-19 measures Jan. 6 after the government expressed grave concern about a surge of new infections and called for restrictions on the movement of U.S. personnel. Japan is facing what some are calling its sixth wave of coronavirus infections with cases in some places at their highest in months. One official has blamed U.S. military personnel for spreading the omicron variant.
Air Force Magazine
Recent Russian and Chinese missile launches raised the stakes in space. Find out the latest news on sensing, tracking, and defending against enemy missile strikes.
Air Force Times
Yoko Holdren wants to work. She tried to find jobs for more than a decade but seemingly hit a roadblock at every turn. First it was the frequent moves with her husband, Master Sgt. Donovan Holdren, and the cost of child care for their three kids. Then it was German employment and citizenship rules at Ramstein Air Base, where the family is stationed. Her green card neared expiration. And, just as she looked to get a job when her youngest son started school, the coronavirus pandemic hit. Holdren turned to the Air Force and enlisted two weeks before her 40th birthday.
Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies
In episode 57 of the Aerospace Advantage podcast, Mitchell Institute team members recount some of their most memorable experiences in the air and in space. Normally, retired Gen. Kevin Chilton, retired Maj. Gen. Larry Stutzriem, and Mark Gunzinger talk policy and budget issues, but over the holiday season, they decided to reflect on some of their more memorable experiences, such as launching in the space shuttle, engaging Soviet fighters over the Pacific, and flying a bomber mission that lasted over 33 hours and nearly came apart in the final moments of the flight.
The Drive
Previously classified adaptive optics technologies enabled the Air Force Research Laboratory to capture an image of an asteroid’s moon using a telescope measuring just 1.5 meters across. The ability to detect and capture images of space-based objects without the need for massive telescopes could aid in the Pentagon’s efforts to track small, maneuverable satellites in close proximity to one another.
Breaking Defense
The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which oversaw more than half a trillion dollars in foreign military sales in fiscal 2021, has named James Hursch as its new director. The appointment of Hursch, who took office Jan. 2, continues a trend of appointing civilian DSCA directors rather than the general officers who typically led the agency in the past.
Breaking Defense
Improving cybersecurity—in particular, developing methods to weed out “deep fake” imagery and computer-manipulated data—will be one of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s top priorities for this year and next, Chief Information Officer Mark Andress said. Doing so, he elaborated, “is not just about ensuring that the data we obtain and deliver is secure from a cybersecurity perspective, but the integrity of the data in a world where the exploitation of imagery, the manipulation of imagery and deep fakes, computer-driven manipulation of data is huge. So we have an obligation to ensure that integrity.”
Defense One
The U.S.-China relationship will be overwhelmingly ruled by competition, but the two powers must cooperate in one area: fighting climate change, the National Security Council’s China expert said. Kurt Campbell, the NSC’s coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs, said Jan. 6 that it’s critical for American officials to bring China in line with global efforts to cut emissions and end global warming.
One More Thing
HistoryNet
George Owen Squier, a slim, balding man in his late 50s with a reddish mustache, was not only the first officer in the U.S. Army with a doctoral degree but also a technology visionary who revolutionized telephone communication, helped build the nation’s first air force, and knew such pioneering figures as Alexander Graham Bell, who had been credited with inventing and patenting the first practical telephone; Guglielmo Marconi, the Italian inventor and electrical engineer who developed wireless telegraphy; and Orville and Wilbur Wright, the American aviation pioneers.
