Air Force 2024 budget

Biden’s 2024 Budget Seeks $842B for Defense, ‘21st Century’ Air Force

President Joe Biden’s administration released its proposed 2024 budget on March 9, including $842 billion for the Department of Defense—and while the Pentagon has yet to offer many specific details on how that money would be spent, the White House said its spending plan “builds the Air Forces needed for the 21st century” and “increases space resilience.” 
Air Force deployments

New Air Force Force Generation Model Will Stop ‘Crowdsourcing’ Deployments

Looking to build stability and improve readiness, Air Force leaders said at the AFA Warfare Symposium they are planning a move in 2024 to what they call a more cohesive approach to deployments for Airmen. That deadline to implement the service's new force generation model—Air Force Force Generation, or AFFORGEN—is a self-imposed one, reflecting an urgency to shift focus to the Pacific and prepare for a more sophisticated fight, a panel of top generals said March 8.
spark tank 2023

Ground-Penetrating Radar and AR Guide Airmen to Spark Tank Win

No one wants to stand up in front of the entire Department of Air Force leadership team and own up to being personally responsible for cutting vital communications lines in a war zone, but Tech. Sgt. Raymond Zgoda turned that error into a winning point March 8 in the 2023 Spark Tank Championship. Zgoda and Master Sgt. Sarah Hubert, both of Yokota Air Base, Japan, won the competition before an audience of about 2,000 Airmen and Guardians with an idea for using ground-penetrating radar and AR goggles to more precisely map underground pipes, wires, and fiber-optic lines on military bases to prevent accidental breaks caused by construction.

Radar Sweep

Air Force Chief Wants to Take ‘Wrecking Ball’ to Service’s Bureaucracy

Air Force Times

Gen. CQ Brown took command of the Air Force in August 2020 with a mission: to reshape a service that had spent nearly two decades in uncontested counterinsurgency fights in the Middle East. Now, Brown said, the Air Force needed to get ready for a future war against a major potential adversary such as China and wouldn’t be able to count on the same military dominance as in the last war.

USAF Testing ‘Mutant’ Missiles That Twist in Mid-Air to Hit Their Targets

The War Zone

The U.S. Air Force is exploring a novel concept for increasing the likelihood of scoring a hit in air-to-air combat. The idea is to use an air-to-air missile with a nose that bends to get at the target before it can get away. The service views this as one path to giving current and future combat aircraft, including a sixth-generation stealth jet being developed under the Next Generation Air Dominance program, a new way to engage increasingly maneuverable threats.

From Z-Grams to C-Notes: Inside Gen. Saltzman’s Unique Approach to Leading America’s Digitally Focused Space Force

DefenseScoop

As he executes on his at times “daunting” responsibilities to steer the United States’ newest high-tech military branch, Space Force leader Gen. Chance Saltzman is applying lessons and tactics from innovative leaders who served decades before this modern, digital age. He personally writes and regularly sends Chief of Space Operations notices to Guardians at all levels, for example, to share his evolving thoughts on priorities and invite discussion and debate on topics he views as critically important to the young force.

Air Force Finds Ways to Bake Cybersecurity into Weapons Systems, and Bolt It on Where Necessary

Federal News Network

The Department of the Air Force thinks it’s made significant progress over the last several years in upping its game in the still-nascent field of weapons system cybersecurity—enough so that it’s ready to start expanding the approach it’s been using to the Space Force. The Air Force first stood up its Cyber Resiliency Office for Weapons Systems (CROWS) in 2017, responding to then-increasing realizations that weapons platforms are vulnerable to cyber threats, but require different security approaches than traditional IT systems.

Eyeing China, Pentagon Asks Congress to Boost Funds for Pacific Forces

POLITICO

The Pentagon is asking Congress to significantly increase funding for the U.S. military’s presence in the Pacific, signaling the Biden administration’s increasing sense of urgency toward countering China’s aggressive behavior in the region. Alongside President Joe Biden’s budget request for next year, the Pentagon will submit a new $15.3 billion plan to fund Pacific forces, according to an unclassified version of the report obtained by POLITICO.

Pentagon Looking to Make Sure SpaceX Doesn’t Abandon Them in War

Defense One

A type of contract pioneered in the 1950s may help the Pentagon solve a 21st-century problem: making sure private-sector satellite operators don’t cut off wartime communications. On March 9, lawmakers and the commander of U.S. Space Command expressed concern about SpaceX’s recent announcement that it would start limiting Ukraine’s use of the company’s Starlink constellation.

US Must Revive, Dominate Electronic Warfare, Pentagon CIO Sherman Says

Defense News

The U.S. must “regenerate” its electronic warfare capabilities after years of neglect to ensure dominance on battlefields of the future, John Sherman, the Pentagon’s chief information officer, told a congressional panel. “As we get ready for China, we better be able to fight and dominate” the electromagnetic spectrum, he told the House Armed Services Cyber, Information Technology and Innovation subcommittee at a March 9 hearing on defense in the digital era.

DOD’s Top Doc Calls on Congress to Overturn Law Limiting Discussions on Guns with Service Members

Military.com

A top Defense Department health official said March 7 that a law limiting the DOD’s ability to ask questions about firearms ownership by service members hinders the physician-patient relationship and should be amended. Questioned during a hearing by a Senate Appropriations defense panel on a 2013 law that prohibits DOD leaders, including commanders and health providers, from inquiring about or recording any information on private firearms owned by troops, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. Lester Martinez-Lopez said the law, in terms of health care, is “not good for any of the two parties.”

One More Thing

9 Badass Women in the Military Who Have Made History—and Why You Should Know Them

TODAY

Throughout history, women have played critical roles in the success of the U.S. military in both war and peace times. Margaret Corbin famously defended Fort Washington in 1776 during the Revolutionary War and Cathay Williams disguised herself as a man to serve in the Civil War, but it wasn’t until 1901 that women were allowed to serve in the military in any official capacity. These female trailblazers are to thank for the roles women have in our armed forces today. But who are they? And how did they do it?