Military.com
Troops stationed at remote and overseas bases attempted suicide at slightly higher rates but were less often successful compared to the general Active-duty military population, according to findings in a new Government Accountability Office report.
EurAsian Times
Australia and Japan are two important planks of wider Indo-Pacific policy that aim to counterbalance China’s growing power in the region. Recently, the air forces of the two countries demonstrated a breakthrough in interoperability by carrying out refueling operations mid-air. The Royal Australian Air Force conducted its first-ever air-to-air refueling flight test with the Japan Air Self-Defense Force.
Military.com
Nearly half of U.S. adults put on excess pounds during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and several new studies show that service members were not immune to the weight gain. At the start of the pandemic in March 2020, 18 percent of Active-duty U.S. service members were classified as obese, having a body mass index, as calculated using weight and height, equal to or greater than 30. Thirteen months later, 19.3 percent of the force had reached that threshold.
Defense News
When Deanna Ryals joined what was then the U.S. Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center in 2012, her focus was on building partnerships with international allies, specifically around satellite communications. She is now director of the Space Force’s International Affairs Directorate at what is now Space Systems Command. Her office’s mission spans the service’s entire portfolio, including SATCOM, weather, and missile warning and tracking.
Defense News
President Joe Biden is slated to visit Alabama on May 3 to tour a Lockheed Martin facility tasked with manufacturing the Javelin anti-tank missiles that the U.S. has steadily provided to Ukraine with almost legendary success. While a presidential-level visit will draw the American public’s attention to the U.S. defense industry’s role in producing the weapons that have helped the Ukrainian military repel Russian advances, it will also highlight its struggles to replenish the stocks of munitions that the Biden administration has sent abroad.
Breaking Defense
It’s been two months since Russia began its unprovoked invasion in Ukraine, and a new phase of the war is starting as Russia turns away from its failed assault on Kyiv and begins to coalesce artillery and air support in the eastern Donbas region. For the United States, which has provided a total of $3.4 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the invasion started Feb. 24, a similar transformation is in progress.
Politico
Lawmakers receiving the latest secret briefings on UFOs say national security agencies still aren’t taking seriously the reports of highly advanced aircraft of unknown origin violating protected airspace. Members of the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services committees received classified progress reports in recent weeks on a series of new data collection efforts the Pentagon and spy agencies are now required to pursue to more rigorously investigate reports of UFOs, three people with direct knowledge confirmed.
Defense One
Some lawmakers are urging their colleagues not to lose sight of the threats posed by China, voicing concern that the Pentagon is trying to “shortchange” its mission in the Pacific. Military leaders have named China the top threat facing the Defense Department, but the Pentagon’s 2023 budget request for the region appears lower than the amount Indo-Pacific Command officials said they need in a March 2022 report to Congress obtained by Defense One. More than a dozen lawmakers are asking leaders of the House Appropriations Committee to boost funding to suit.
The Drive
The Air Force is asking for funds in its budget request for fiscal 2023 to build and test a prototype self-propelled gun designed to shoot down incoming cruise missiles. The service has presented the weapon, which could use ammunition originally developed for the Navy's abortive railgun program, primarily as a possible expeditionary base defense asset.
One More Thing
Deadline Hollywood
Netflix has opted not to renew Greg Daniels and Steve Carell’s comedy series “Space Force” for a third season. The decision on the series, which starred John Malkovich and Ben Schwartz alongside Carell, comes two-and-a-half months after Season 2 was released Feb. 18.
