Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin went into the hospital on Monday for complications following an elective surgery, the Pentagon announced Jan. 5 He was expected to resume his full duties the evening of Jan. 5, Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement. ... Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks has been filling in where necessary, Ryder said.
The Pentagon did not tell President Joe Biden and other top officials about Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s hospitalization for three days, three U.S. officials said. National security adviser Jake Sullivan and other senior White House aides didn’t know of Austin’s Jan. 1 hospitalization until the Defense Department sent over word Jan. 4, two other U.S. officials said. Sullivan informed Biden shortly after DOD’s notification.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced a deal Jan. 7 on how much the U.S. government will spend in the new year, a significant step toward avoiding a shutdown. But while the agreement on a “topline” spending level breaks a logjam that had stalled the process, it doesn’t necessarily extinguish the shutdown threat as the first of two deadlines nears on Jan. 19, when some parts of the government will run out of money.
Aerospace giant Boeing plans to ramp up production of the E-7 Wedgetail to an ambitious six planes per year to keep up with burgeoning global demand, according to the company official charged with getting the early warning birds in the air. Previously, executives discussed plans for producing four of the radar planes a year with the possibility of reaching up to six. But in a December interview with Breaking Defense inside a trailer that houses a partial mockup of the Wedgetail’s interior at Boeing’s Tukwila Development Center, E-7 program manager Stu Voboril said it’s become obvious the company will shoot for the higher end as legacy airframes are phased out.
In Episode 162 of the Aerospace Advantage podcast, the Mitchell Institute’s John “Slick” Baum chats with members of the Mitchell Institute team about the latest defense developments in the beltway and the broader national security community. We’re off to a new year, so we’ve gathered members of the team to discuss topics we should be tracking in 2024.
United Launch Alliance is set to send its much-anticipated heavy-lift rocket into space, as it endeavors to compete against launch titan SpaceX. The first flight test and certification mission for ULA’s Vulcan Centaur rocket is on track to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Jan. 8, company officials said.
Maj. Gen. Lorna Mahlock assumed command of U.S. Cyber Command’s elite Cyber National Mission Force in a ceremony Jan. 5. Mahlock, the first Marine Corps officer to lead the CNMF, takes over for Maj. Gen. William Hartman, who will assume the deputy commander role at CYBERCOM and pin on a third star.
The U.S. Space Force is on the verge of finalizing a key strategy document outlining how it will partner with the burgeoning commercial space industry. After months of refinement, Deputy Chief of Space Operations Lt. Gen. DeAnna Burt announced Jan. 5 at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies that the document is nearing completion. “We are just days away from signing off on the strategy,” Burt said.
Pakistan is set to acquire the Chinese FC-31 Gyrfalcon fifth-generation fighter, according to head of the Pakistan Air Force. Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu was speaking Jan. 2 at an induction ceremony for new equipment—which included J-10C Firebird fighters—when he said the FC-31 would enter service in the near future.
Airmen and guardians seeking reimbursement for bringing pets with them to a new military duty assignment now have a list of the documentation needed to make that happen. An Air Force statement Jan. 4 lays out how personnel can receive compensation for those expenses, which are covered up to $550 for permanent changes of station within the continental U.S. and up to $2,000 for moves outside the continental U.S.
Since 1955, the United States military has operated a jet that can leapfrog entire continents, sustain speeds of more than 400 mph and employ sophisticated cameras to photograph targets more than 13 miles away. That plane is the Lockheed Martin U-2 Dragon Lady, and it's a design so radical that pilots can't actually land the aircraft without help from outside. For that, they need U-2 chase cars.