Breaking Defense
Despite continued challenges pushing the Air Force’s new MH-139A Grey Wolf helicopter through the certification process, Boeing hopes to have the chopper completely certified and delivered to the service by the end of this summer, company officials said. A production decision is now anticipated to occur in 2023, having slipped from the original date of September 2021, said Mark Cherry, Boeing’s vice president and general manager of its vertical lift program.
Task & Purpose
In a war with China, the American territory of Guam would likely become the 21st century Pearl Harbor. Stacie Pettyjohn, a defense strategy and wargaming expert, said most wargames involving a Chinese invasion of Taiwan that she has led have begun with the team playing China attacking American bases on Guam and elsewhere in the Pacific to prevent the U.S. military from bringing significant combat power to the early stages of the fight.
Federal News Network
When it comes to directed energy technologies such as lasers and microwave weapons, the Air Force just doesn’t have anything that’s quite ready to deploy on a fighter jet. But a new modeling and simulation facility at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., is going to try to make sure pilots are ready to use them once they are. The Air Force Research Laboratory just awarded a 10-year, $80 million contract to build a new virtual range for directed energy weapons.
Defense News
The Italian Air Force is to get a second air base ready to host the F-35A by the end of this year as deliveries of the aircraft ramp up, according to officials. Work is now underway at Ghedi air base in northern Italy to allow the basing of F-35As there and their inclusion in Ghedi’s 6th Air Force Wing, which currently flies Tornados.
SpaceNews
House Armed Services Committee Chair Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) in the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act proposes adding $75 million to the Pentagon’s budget for “tactically responsive space,” a program that funds small-satellite launch experiments and demonstrations. Smith on June 20 released his version of the NDAA, or chairman’s mark.
Air Force Magazine
The Air Force is transitioning to more virtual training to give pilots an edge, saying some higher-end maneuvers cannot be replicated in real-time training. Learn more on Air Force Magazine’s Live, Virtual & Constructive Training page.
Breaking Defense
The Air Force is exploring new ways that artificial intelligence can be used to help with data collection and sharing efforts specifically for sensing operations, including bringing in a variety of data beyond just images to create an “integrated” intelligence picture.
Defense One
The Defense Department should keep better track of its cybersecurity and supply chain risk management plans, according to a recent watchdog report. The Government Accountability Office found that of the 25 DOD major IT programs it reviewed, only 15 of those programs had a department-approved cybersecurity strategy and just 10 had submitted a system security plan for information and communications technology supply chain risk management.
The Associated Press
Canada is investing $4.9 billion Canadian (US$3.8 billion) over the next six years to modernize North America’s aging defensive systems. Defense Minister Anita Anand said the funding is the first of an estimated $40 billion Canadian (US$31 billion) that will be spent over the next 20 years to upgrade the joint U.S.-Canadian early warning system known as North American Aerospace Defense Command and to purchase other military assets to protect the continent.
Politico
The White House announced that it will commit to limiting the use of anti-personnel land mines in most places around the world, putting an end to a Trump-era expansion of the policy that President Joe Biden had vowed to reverse. Anti-personnel land mines, designed for use against humans, have a “disproportionate impact on civilians, including children, long after fighting has stopped,” the White House said in a statement.
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The Washington Post
Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), one of the most important cyber lawmakers in history, isn't running for reelection—but he still has work to do. He’s looking at the annual must-pass defense authorization bill as an opportunity to fold in cybersecurity provisions that weren't even on the radar when he first joined Congress two decades ago.
The Intercept
The Pentagon envisions a future in which Elon Musk’s rockets might someday deploy a “quick reaction force” to thwart a future Benghazi-style attack, according to documents obtained by The Intercept via Freedom of Information Act request. In October 2020, U.S. Transportation Command, the Pentagon office tasked with shuttling cargo to keep the American global military presence humming, announced that it was partnering with Musk’s SpaceX rocketry company to determine the feasibility of quickly blasting supplies into space and back to Earth rather than flying them through the air.
One More Thing
Air Force Times
Two slices of Wonder Bread, a dollop of chunky Jif peanut butter, and globs of Smucker’s grape jelly meld together to create one of the most delicious and iconic meals in American history: the PB&J. However, the Air Force Medical Service challenged this timeless recipe, in an effort to encourage better nutrition, with a set of ingredients that would have any kid in the cafeteria wanting desperately to swap his sack lunch.
