Air Force Times
Four American troops are being treated for minor injuries and evaluated for traumatic brain injury after an April 7indirect fire attack on the Green Village base in eastern Syria, according to a release from Operative Inherent Resolve. Two rockets hit two support buildings, the release said.
Air Force Times
A plan to bring new missions to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, is cancelled as the Air Force struggles to get rid of old attack planes. Last year, the Air Force announced it wanted to retire 42 A-10C Thunderbolt II planes, all but seven of which are housed at the Tucson base. Dumping those jets in 2022 would have made room to bring testing and training for the A-10 and the HH-60 combat search-and-rescue helicopter from Nellis AFB in Nevada to Davis-Monthan. Then Congress got in the way.
War on the Rocks
“In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, analysts have argued that Taiwan could benefit from a similar asymmetric defense strategy to deter or defeat a Chinese invasion. We agree. But this strategy will fail if Taiwan cannot disrupt Chinese air control. While parsing the military lessons of the Russo-Ukrainian War will take years, initial analysis suggests that Ukrainian air defenses have been critical in ensuring the country’s survival and allowing its military to operate effectively,” writes Harry Halem, a researcher with the Hudson Institute and Middle East and North Africa Forum, and a Krauthammer Fellow at the Tikvah Fund; and Eyck Freymann, director of Indo-Pacific at Greenmantle and author of “One Belt One Road: Chinese Power Meets the World.”
Breaking Defense
Kendall's remarks, which came as a surprise to many, including several Space Force officers at the Space Symposium, serves as a direction for where the service should prioritize.
Military.com
Tyndall's 33 F-22s are just a fraction of the nearly 300 aircraft retirements built into this year's Air Force budget request. The cost of maintaining and upgrading those fighter jets to be ready for combat would be nearly $2 billion. While the F-22s at Tyndall would all be retired, others in the fleet would be shuffled to other bases as the Air Force tries to save money.
Gizmodo
Gizmodo joined Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks and a group of officials as they observed an autonomous vehicle presentation this week at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park California. When asked about the state of the AV industry immediately following the event, one of Hicks’ Special Assistants spoke positively but said there’s “still some kinks that needed to be worked out.” Foremost among those were concerns around potential hacking and security, the official said.
Defense One
As terrible as Russia’s war in Ukraine is, it pales in comparison to a potential fight against China, the Pentagon’s No. 2 civilian said. The Ukrainian conflict “is not the degree of difficulty that we are looking at in terms of what we need to have to fight in the future,” Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks told reporters traveling with her to visit startups and technology partners in California this week. “You even see the Ukrainians asking for more and more advanced systems themselves. But, the [United States], we're very focused on how to make sure we have a really combat credible capability,” to deter China.
Roll Call
Since that March 26 remark in Poland was walked back by West Wing aides, only to have Biden stand by them a few days later, his administration has sanctioned more influential Russian individuals and entities and slapped more export controls on Moscow. On Wednesday, the administration sought to end U.S. investment inside Russia. The White House again this week contended—publicly, at least—that Biden does not have a policy of regime change in Moscow. But questions to that end are lobbed at Press Secretary Jen Psaki and other White House officials daily. And for good reason.
One More Thing
ABC 3 WEAR-TV
Tech. Sgt. Andrew Brockman, a 96th Maintenance Squadron senior munitions inspector, recently won the Petty GMS and Air Force-sponsored Paint Scheme Fan Vote Contest. Brockman's dark green paint scheme design was inspired by Air Force beginnings with the Army Air Corps, images of a B-29 Superfortress, and the Air Force's 75th Anniversary this year.
