Military Times
The new year brought a major victory for thousands of service members who refused the COVID-19 vaccines—and the conservative lawmakers and pundits who backed them. The Pentagon was forced to repeal its coronavirus mandate by a largely-GOP-backed requirement added to the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in December. But many troops who balked at taking the shots still face uncertain futures.
SpaceNews
The Space Systems Command announced March 24 it has selected 18 vendors to provide data analytics and software services to help decision makers analyze information about the space domain. These vendors will compete for $900 million worth of task orders under an indefinite delivery indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract over the next five years.
Breaking Defense
Perhaps the most striking thing about U.S. Space Command’s fiscal 2024 wish list for funds not included in the Defense Department’s annual budget request is its full-throated call for lawmakers to back Indo-Pacific Command’s bold bid for $3.5 billion in extra FY24 cash. In a March 23 letter conveying his own command’s “unfunded priorities” list to the Senate Armed Services Committee, obtained by Breaking Defense, SPACECOM head Gen. Jim Dickinson expresses “strong support” for INDOPACOM’s ask.
Air & Space Forces Magazine
Driven by advancements in technology and research, the Air Force and Space Force are adapting how they train their warfighters to complete the missions at hand. Keep up with all the latest news on changes and improvements to the services’ training enterprises.
Defense One
The Air Force is rigging F-16s to fly autonomously, but that’s not the main point of automating one of the service’s most numerous fighter jets, the commander of the Air Force Test Center said March 27. Instead, the Venom project aims to refine an AI engine to fly a wide variety of today’s and tomorrow’s aircraft. Venom, in turn, is part of the years-long push to develop autonomous aircraft that can work alongside crewed aircraft or operate autonomously, Maj. Gen. Evan Dertian said at a Mitchell Institute event.
Military.com
The military grew complacent with recruiting during the Global War on Terror, and that left it unprepared for the difficulties of finding new recruits after recent shocks from the pandemic and a newly competitive labor market, according to a group of experts. The lack of preparation is a key reason the services face a recruiting crisis now, and even some of the programs the branches have put in place to ease the dearth of Americans prepared to sign up come with their own risks, said panelists at an event on military recruiting and retention hosted by the Brookings Institution, a bipartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C.
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The Wall Street Journal
The Pentagon is seeking to enlist Silicon Valley startups in its effort to fund and develop new weapons technology and more-nimble suppliers, as the U.S. races to keep pace with China’s military advances. The push to tap private capital comes in the midst of concern that U.S. defense-industry consolidation has led to dependence on a few large companies that rely on government funding for research and is hampering innovation. Meanwhile, China has pulled ahead in some key technologies, ranging from small drones to hypersonic missiles, helped by Beijing’s use of external public-private guidance funds, according to current and former Pentagon officials.
One More Thing
Task & Purpose
Since armed drones became a regular tool in the United States’ arsenal, movies and television shows have been trying to incorporate them and weigh in on the morals of a drone war. Now it’s opera’s time. And a new opera about drone strikes is coming to Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center. The Kennedy Center and the Washington National Opera announced their 2023-2024 season this month, and the opening production is the world premiere of Grounded. The opera, composed by Jeanine Tesori with a libretto by George Brant, is adapted from Brant’s 2013 play of the same name.
