The New York Times
President Biden told Israel’s leaders on Dec. 12 that they were losing international support for their war in Gaza, exposing a widening rift with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who rejected out of hand the American vision for a postwar resolution to the conflict.
CBS News
President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered a united front Dec. 12, as the pair made a renewed push for Congress to approve more aid for Ukraine before the end of the year. Mr. Biden announced he’s signed an additional $200 million in drawdown funds for Ukraine, but said U.S. funds will dry up—fast. During a joint press conference alongside Zelenskyy at the White House, Mr. Biden said, “Ukraine will emerge from this war proud, free, and firmly rooted in the West—unless we walk away.”
Texas Tribune
The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents has unanimously approved Gen. Mark Welsh III as the 27th president of Texas A&M University, a little more than four months after he was named interim president of the flagship university following the former president’s resignation over a hiring scandal.
Defense One
The Pentagon gave Israel special computer files with detailed information about enemy threats to help the country’s fleet of F-35s, which it is using against Hamas. Following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the U.S. turned around F-35 mission data files to Israel in a “week, week and half,” Pentagon acquisition chief Bill LaPlante said Dec. 12 during a House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee hearing. Mission data files are essentially the brains of the jet—an extensive data system with information on potential threats.
Breaking Defense
Lt. Gen. John Shaw retired as deputy head of U.S. Space Command in October after serving 33 years, first in the Air Force and then in the Space Force. As an astronautical engineer, Shaw is one of an elite group of senior officers to have spent their entire career in space operations. During his three-year stint at SPACECOM, Shaw was known for his far-sighted thinking about the role of space in how the U.S. military will fight in the future.
SpaceNews
The U.S. Space Force will launch a new market research study next year to assess commercial weather services to fill some of the military’s ever-growing data needs. The move comes amid concerns that the military’s current reliance on a patchwork of international and domestic sources is inadequate for future operational demands. “We have a long list of requirements,” said Col. Robert Davis, program executive officer for space sensing at the Space Systems Command.
C4ISRNET
Executives with L3Harris Technologies said the company will hit a development milestone for its Viper Shield electronic warfare package this month, with production on track for 2025. L3Harris is constructing Viper Shield, a collection of digital protections and countermeasures, for fitting aboard Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70/72 jets sold to foreign militaries. More than a dozen countries planned to fly the variants when the company was first tapped for the work.
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Inside Defense
The Defense Department plans next month to conduct the second of two major technical reviews for the Next Generation Interceptor competition, assessing Northrop Grumman’s design and select components for a homeland defense guided-missile prototype after completing a similar review in October of the same for Lockheed Martin.
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Stars and Stripes
The U.S. and South Korean militaries are working together to recover an F-16 Fighting Falcon that crashed this week in the Yellow Sea, according to the U.S. 7th Air Force. The command is coordinating with the Air Force Safety Center and South Korean navy to retrieve the F-16 lost from the 8th Fighter Wing at Kunsan Air Base, 7th Air Force spokeswoman Maj. Rachel Buitrago told Stars and Stripes by email.
The War Zone
The U.S. military has released a video of an AC-130J Ghostrider gunship firing its 30mm cannon during recent live-fire training over the Caribbean Sea. U.S. officials say this was unrelated to a still-nebulous air exercise American forces carried out with their counterparts in Guyana that occurred on the same day. Still, it is an unusually public demonstration of American capabilities in the region that comes amid an especially serious flare-up of a long-standing territorial dispute between Guyana and Venezuela.
One More Thing
Simple Flying
The National Museum of the United States Air Force (USAF) has completed restoration work on its Boeing X-32A. The fighter jet demonstrator—which lost out to the Lockheed X-35—has been on display in the museum since 2005. The museum proudly showcased the rejuvenated aircraft on the grounds of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio.
