Military.com
The Air Force is allowing instructors who remain unvaccinated against COVID-19 to fly again, a change that comes as the result of a pending lawsuit that is stopping the service from punishing those who have refused to get inoculated. The pilots were grounded this summer. An memo issued by Maj. Gen. Phillip Stewart, the commander of 19th Air Force, reverses a decision that kept those unvaccinated teachers from flying.
Defense One
The U.S. Space Force will buy cheaper, smaller satellites in the future instead of the bespoke, multi-billion dollar behemoths it has relied on for decades, according to the service’s acquisition chief. The long-anticipated move to smaller satellites is now official policy, according to a letter from Frank Calvelli, the Space Force’s assistant secretary for acquisition and integration.
Defense News
The U.S. is aiming to send Ukraine the “Vampire” counter-drone system by mid-2023, with a contract award expected within months. The Pentagon had announced it would send the system, a laser-guided-missile launcher that can quickly be installed in a civilian truck bed, as part of a larger arms package. But despite Russia’s expanded use of Iranian-made kamikaze drones to target Ukraine’s power stations and other key infrastructure, the Pentagon hasn’t yet approved a contract to deliver the system.
The Associated Press
SpaceX launched its mega Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time in more than three years, hoisting satellites for the military and then nailing side-by-side booster landings back near the pad. Thick fog shrouded NASA’s Kennedy Space Center as the rocket blasted off at midmorning. The crowd at the launch site couldn’t even see the pad three miles (5 kilometers) away, but heard the roar of the 27 first-stage engines.
Breaking Defense
Space Force acquisition head Frank Calvelli is working on a “scorecard” to grade the progress of major programs as a next step toward improving space acquisition processes—with the ultimate goal of keeping ahead of surging Chinese and Russian capabilities. The scorecard is “really to look at sort of the classic schedule, cost, performance, [the] project management metrics that I want to track at my level,” he said. “I haven’t found exactly the formula yet—I’ve got my team looking at it. But I want to really kind of look, for all of our major programs, at a sort of red, yellow, green scorecard for cost, schedule, performance.”
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Popular Science
Before I could lock the laser weapon’s crosshairs on the DJI Phantom drone, I had to make sure it was in the right position. With the drone against a cloudless blue sky, the weapon’s sensors could clearly see and track it, but hard-coded rules of engagement prevented the weapon from firing until the target had an earthen backdrop. Light travels far, and we don’t want to accidentally zap the wrong thing that’s far away. The 10-kilowatt laser in question was a High-Energy Laser Weapon System built by Raytheon.
SpaceNews
Northrop Grumman selected Leidos to supply infrared sensor payloads for the Space Development Agency’s missile-tracking satellite constellation in low Earth orbit. “It’s a key win for our space business,” Leidos chairman and CEO Roger Krone said during a third-quarter earnings call. Northrop Grumman won a $617 million contract in July to produce 14 infrared-sensing satellites that will be part of a network of 28 missile-detecting satellites—known as Tracking Layer Tranche 1—to be deployed by the Space Force’s Space Development Agency.
Forbes
“The United States broadcast contradictory messages last week, perplexing allies and potential adversaries alike. The U.S. Air Force announced that it was withdrawing F-15C/D air-superiority fighter aircraft from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, after 43 years on station. They will not be backfilled anytime soon with permanently assigned fighter aircraft. The day prior, the U.S. released its new National Defense Strategy, which highlights China as the ‘pacing challenge’ to U.S. defense capability,” writes retired Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
Collins Aerospace
Air dominance is the goal of every pilot. Mosarc from Collins Aerospace offers an open, scalable and tailorable approach to aircraft upgrades that empowers pilots to achieve air dominance in the next-generation battlespace.
Breaking Defense
The Biden administration has decided not to release an unclassified version of its Strategic Space Review, despite the recent publication of other similar Pentagon reviews and a public push by senior space officials for more openness in space operations. In response to questions about the status of the report, a Defense Department spokesperson confirmed that the review had been signed out by Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and transmitted to the White House.
Defense News
The future of defense technology is in autonomy, the Air Force says, and the service wants to find out what industry members can bring to the table. AFWERX, the Air Force office in charge of finding new and innovative ways to use technology, has set up a new program called Autonomy Prime to learn about the autonomous technologies companies have under development—and how the military could adapt them for its missions.
One More Thing
Military.com
When the Air Force began seriously investigating the phenomena of unidentified flying objects (UFOs), it assigned the task to an accomplished World War II veteran. Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt was a bombardier with five battle stars, three Air Medals, and two Distinguished Flying Crosses. He took his work seriously, even if the American press chuckled about “flying saucers.”
