“Our adversaries understand the importance of space superiority. Countries like China and Russia have worked so hard to rapidly develop, deploy, and demonstrate military capabilities that can put our space enterprise at risk. They believe space warfare is inevitable and that they could gain a significant warfighting advantage by attacking our capabilities on orbit. They’re right, and we need to change our approach. That’s why [Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has stressed] the imperative of transforming the Space Force into a full-fledged armed force capable of empowering deterrence and achieving space superiority for U.S. Space Command,” writes Christopher Stone, senior fellow for space studies at the Spacepower Advantage Center of Excellence at AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
Russia and the United States have carried out a dramatic prisoner exchange, trading a Marine veteran jailed by Moscow for a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a long prison sentence in America. The surprise deal involving Trevor Reed, an American imprisoned for nearly three years, would have been a notable diplomatic maneuver even in times of peace, but it was all the more extraordinary because it was done as Russia’s war with Ukraine has driven relations with the U.S. to their lowest point in decades.
The Pentagon is seeking $377 million over five years to fund high-profile rapid experimentation projects, including initial efforts to close capability gaps in support of the Joint Warfighting Concept and to improve Joint All Domain Operations in U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, budget details show.
A Government Accountability Office review of the process that awarded U.S. Space Command to Huntsville, Ala., instead of Colorado Springs, has identified “significant shortfalls” in the “transparency and credibility” that led to the decision, according to a senior-level source with knowledge of the report. The GAO report won’t be available to the public for at least another month, but Colorado lawmakers who requested and signed off on it got an early look.
Five years ago, the National Guard spent roughly 14,000 personnel hours fighting wildfires. By last year, that had increased to 170,000 hours. And experts agree the trend is only getting worse. The steep increase is just one example of how record-breaking weather and climate disasters are impacting the National Guard, who often serve as a response force to wildfires and hurricanes around the nation.
The National Reconnaissance Office will issue formal contracts to chosen commercial providers of electro-optical (EO) imagery this summer, said Pete Muend, the spy agency’s head of commercial operations. But while those contracts loom, Muend acknowledged to reporters that his organization has not accelerated its planned 2024 decision about a formal acquisition program from another kind of satellite-based capability, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery—even though he noted that both EO and SAR imagery have been game-changers in the Ukraine conflict.
U.S. special operators are taking at least two lessons from Russia’s two-month-old war in Ukraine. First, the international partnerships the U.S. has been fostering for the past 20 years are playing a huge role. And drones are playing an even bigger one.
One Soldier was killed and another two were injured in a vehicle incident at Yakima Training Center in Washington state. Pfc. Joseph Marquez was killed in the accident. Marquez, 20, was a native of Dover, Del., and served as a motor transport operator in 8th Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, which falls under the 2nd Infantry Division's 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team. The unit makes up part of the 7th Infantry Division at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington.
Cybersecurity. It’s important stuff. There’s a lot of critical data out there that you don’t want bad actors snooping on. That is why the Air Force apparently needs a cybersecurity mascot. A caped robot with a shield and lightning bolt adorned helmet, here to ask you if you’ve tried turning your computer off and on again and presumably solving the myriad of technical issues that come with the territory when you’re using decades-old software.