Technology glitches and delays continue to plague the Air Force’s attempt to launch new performance evaluation software after almost a year of struggling to get the program up and running. Some worry the problems will ultimately hurt the Airmen and Space Force Guardians who rely on the routine evaluations to open up new job and promotion prospects.
The U.S. said Nov. 14 it was imposing sanctions on a list of people and firms around the globe that it alleged are involved in supporting Russia’s military as it wages war on Ukraine. Unlike recent packages of sanctions imposed on Russia-based firms and people, the latest financial and diplomatic penalties are aimed at a range of entities including French real estate companies, a group of Swiss nationals, and a Taiwanese microelectronic component purchaser.
The Air Force tests airplanes before it buys them. Now it’s testing software programming tools before buying them. Its goal is to establish the best tools for modernization efforts, both for Air Force programmers and for contractors.
As the votes in the American midterm elections continue to be combed over, the country's Pacific neighbors and friends are watching closely, wondering how the politically split giant will manage its relations and national security over the next two years. “From where I sit, the drag that narrow margins of control have had on the speed of defense and foreign policy legislating isn’t likely to change with this new Congress,” said Tom Corben, a defense and security expert at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.
Exceeding the limits of an F-35 during a training exercise comes at a steep price: the loss of a pilot and an $80 million aircraft. But if that exercise takes place in a virtual environment, then there’s no harm in pushing the envelope. In fact, it can yield important data on the capabilities of the aircraft and the pilot. Advances in technology are facilitating more detailed simulations of weapons and operating environments. That’s allowing the Air Force to transition more training from the real to the virtual world.
The U.S. Space Force has ordered a second environmental satellite known as the Weather System Follow-on Microwave, or WSF-M, made by Ball Aerospace. The first one was purchased in 2018 and is projected to launch in 2024. The Space Force announced Nov. 9 it awarded the company a $78.2 million contract modification, exercising an option to acquire a second WSF-M satellite that would launch in 2028.
Once perceived as a sleeping bear on climate issues, the Defense Department has fully awakened to the realities of global warming as a threat to national security. In less than two years, the Defense Department has released more than a half-dozen key assessments and reports—including climate action plans from each of the major service branches. Those efforts didn’t happen in a vacuum, nor do they propagate from one Pentagon office. Here are six senior officials at the fore of the Biden administration’s revived and robust Defense Department climate policy.
For all the turmoil surrounding billionaire Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter Inc., his SpaceX remains a success story—especially at the Pentagon, where its Starlink satellite communications system is winning new praise as a potential way to reach U.S. troops in the distant reaches of the Arctic.
The sequel to Marvel’s “Black Panther” blockbuster, “Wakanda Forever,” was released over Veterans Day weekend, earning reviews as “an ambitious and emotionally rewarding triumph.” Its titular character T’Challah—played by the late Chadwick Boseman, who died unexpectedly in 2020 following a private battle with cancer—was written off similarly as falling to a mysterious illness. Boseman’s passing sent a shockwave throughout the acting and fan community alike. It hit especially hard for Air Force Staff Sgt. William Beal II, who is currently serving with the 633rd Logistics Readiness Squadron at Langley Air Force Base, Va.