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The New York Times
Government officials believe that surveillance operations by foreign powers and weather balloons or other airborne clutter explain most recent incidents of unidentified aerial phenomenon—government-speak for U.F.O.s—as well as many episodes in past years. The sightings have puzzled the Pentagon and intelligence agencies for years, fueling theories about visiting space aliens and spying by a hostile nation using advanced technology. But government officials say many of the incidents have far more ordinary explanations.
Military.com
There's a new crop of veteran candidates running in this year's midterm elections, and they are part of the largest number of political hopefuls with military experience to seek office in years.
Lawfire
Since Russia’s grotesquely illegal invasion of Ukraine last February, experts have detailed the failures, incompetence, and savagery of its military. In that context, consider this disturbing new report from CNBC: Since Oct. 10, Russia has launched a series of devastating salvos at Ukraine’s power infrastructure, which have hit at least half of its thermal power generation and up to 40 percent of the entire system. President Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Union (EU), immediately charged that “Russia’s attacks against civilian infrastructure, especially electricity, are war crimes.” Let’s readily acknowledge Russia’s horrifying criminality in this war, but let’s also step back and analyze specifics as it is important that we understand exactly how the law of armed conflict applies in this instance.
Aviation Week
The U.S. Air Force next year will start defining what its future airlift capability will be, speeding up the work alongside an accelerated timeline for a next-generation tanker.
Air Force Times
“My mother came to this country from the Philippines over 40 years ago chasing the American dream. She graduated from University of the Philippines Diliman—and when the opportunity to come to the United States presented itself, she jumped at it. Because she knew—like so many—that if she was willing to work hard, the sky’s the limit in the United States of America. … Every day, I have the pleasure of entering the halls of the Pentagon to ensure our Air Force and Space Force have what they need to protect our American way of life. I believe the core of our nation’s strength comes from, and ultimately through, our people. I am personally convinced that we must have a force that is as diverse as the challenges and opportunities that we face as a country,” writes Undersecretary of the Air Force Gina Ortiz Jones.
Air Force Times
Although headlines abounded this summer that the military faces a recruiting crisis, spurred by the Army’s announcement that it expected to miss its accessions goal by thousands, the Defense Department’s most senior leader says he is confident the services will be able to man themselves appropriately to achieve DoD’s stated goals of competing with and deterring China and Russia.
Yonhap
South Korea and the United States will hold major combined air drills, involving some 240 military aircraft, to verify the allies' wartime operational capabilities, the Air Force said Oct. 28, amid growing North Korean security threats. The five-day Vigilant Storm exercise is set to begin as Seoul and Washington are striving to sharpen deterrence amid concerns that Pyongyang could ratchet up tensions by conducting a nuclear test or other provocative acts.
Ars Technica
Russia has made some of its most provocative comments yet about Western commercial satellites, which have provided valuable imagery and communications data to Ukraine this year, suggesting they are appropriate wartime targets. In comments made Oct. 26, a deputy director in Russia's foreign ministry, Konstantin Vorontsov, said the use of Western commercial satellites by Ukraine is "an extremely dangerous trend."
Breaking Defense
The Pentagon’s commercial innovation arm and the Air Force are jointly developing novel systems to improve global weather sensing from land-, air- and space-based platforms, announcing prototype contract awards to five vendors for everything from nano-drones to large balloons to satellites.
Air Force Times
Department of Education officials published their final regulations regarding how veterans’ education benefits are classified in federal funding calculations for colleges, closing the so-called “90/10 loophole” that has been the target of advocates for years. “After years of harassment by deceptive and aggressive for-profit college recruiters, veterans, service members, and their families will no longer be viewed as nothing more than dollar signs in uniform,” Carrie Wofford, president of Veterans Education Success, said in a statement.
One More Thing
Task & Purpose
War is hell, and no book captured the suffering in the trenches quite like Erich Maria Remarque’s 1927 novel “All Quiet on the Western Front.” Drawing from his own wartime experience, Remarque made the story of Paul Baumer and his compatriot’s struggles so vivid it became an international hit. So clearly Hollywood needed to make a comedy out of it with dogs.
