Defense News
Defense contractor Leidos said its board of directors selected Thomas Bell, president of Rolls-Royce’s defense unit and chairman and chief executive of Rolls-Royce North America, to be the U.S. company’s next CEO. Bell takes up the post May 3, Leidos said in a statement Feb. 27. He will succeed Roger Krone, who is retiring.
Breaking Defense
The Commerce Department is wrestling with a handful of tough issues as it works to flesh out a framework for a future U.S. space traffic management regime, stemming in large part from the “tripling of active spacecraft in orbit” in recent years, according to the senior official responsible for commercial space.
Politico
The German government has refuted a White House line that U.S. President Joe Biden agreed to the delivery of Abrams battle tanks to Ukraine only at Germany’s insistence and against the recommendation of his military officials.
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The New York Times
For months, military analysts have been anticipating that the Russian military, under pressure from President Vladimir V. Putin, would seek to regain momentum in the war as the first anniversary approached. A recent series of attacks along the front lines in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine were at first regarded as exploratory thrusts. But increasingly, they are seen as the best the exhausted Russian forces can manage.
Reuters
Belarusian anti-government activists said they had blown up a sophisticated Russian military surveillance aircraft in a drone attack at an airfield near the Belarusian capital Minsk, a claim that neither Russia nor Belarus confirmed. The plane—a Beriev A-50 aircraft—has the NATO reporting name of Mainstay and is an airborne early warning aircraft with command and control capabilities and the ability to track up to 60 targets at a time.
The Washington Post
In interviews with The Washington Post, four military families accused Caz Craffy of going far beyond his duties as an Army civilian employee by taking direct control of their life insurance money through brokerage firms where he also was employed. Combined, their accounts are down $750,000, according to Natalie Khawam, an attorney for three of the families, and Marc Fitapelli, who is representing the fourth survivor.
Bloomberg
When Beijing and Moscow announced plans in 2021 for a joint lunar project, it looked like a powerful alliance, matching China’s technological prowess with deep Russian experience in space, dating back to the original moon race. Yet even before Russia’s war in Ukraine, there were doubts about what Moscow could offer Beijing.
Grand Forks Herald
Two commanders and four subordinate leaders from the Minot Air Force Base were fired on Feb. 27 “due to a loss of confidence in their ability to complete their assigned duties,” a news release from the base said. The commanders are Col. Gregory Mayer, 5th Mission Support Group commander, and Maj. Jonathan Welch, 5th Logistics Readiness Squadron commander, according to Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs.
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Aviation Week
The Taliban claims to have repaired about half of the U.S.-provided aircraft that were damaged during the final days of the American withdrawal from Kabul, with about 4,300 personnel from the former Afghan Air Force (AAF) joining the group, according to a new U.S. inspector general report.
SpaceNews
A U.S. Space Force mission carrying a navigation satellite to geostationary Earth orbit has been confirmed as the first national security launch of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket.
One More Thing
Stars & Stripes
The Defense Department has a message for the service members being cheered on as they unfurl giant American flags horizontally at the Super Bowl and other major events: You're not following the rules. In a Feb. 10 memo to its public affairs offices, the department said that having service members carry the U.S. flag horizontally or land it on the ground after a parachute jump is no longer acceptable.
