The Senate early Feb. 13 passed a $95.3 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, pushing ahead after months of difficult negotiations and amid growing political divisions in the Republican Party over the role of the United States abroad.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was released from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Feb. 13, ending a brief admission that began on Feb. 11. Austin is “well and resumed his full functions and duties Tuesday evening at 5 p.m.,” a statement from the Pentagon read. Austin was admitted to Walter Reed on Feb. 11, due to “a bladder issue related to his December 2023 prostate cancer surgery.” Doctors said Austin’s bladder issues weren’t related to his cancer diagnosis and won’t affect his prognosis.
The Air Force still isn’t sure when it might resume flying the CV-22 Osprey, more than two months after an Osprey crash that killed eight special operations Airmen off the coast of Japan spurred the U.S. military to ground hundreds of the tiltrotor aircraft.
The chief of the U.S. Space Force said Feb. 13 the service’s long-awaited plan for partnering with private space companies is in its final stages, and currently is being coordinated with the Office of the Secretary of Defense. The commercial strategy has been highly anticipated by companies across the space industry that seek more clarity around how they can compete for future contracts as the Space Force takes shape.
“Secretary of the Air Force, Frank Kendall, along with the Chiefs of the Air Force and Space Force unveiled their designs for optimizing the Department of the Air Force on Feb. 12, 2024 at the Air and Space Forces Association’s annual warfighting symposium. Their visions and rationale for them deserve acclaim as do the pragmatic plans for implementing their changes. Rarely in any large organization—much less one of the nation’s military departments—are reforms instituted of the magnitude and as important as the ones revealed,” writes retired Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., said Feb. 12 that U.S. “credibility is at stake” with each of its alliances, including NATO, which former President Donald Trump disparaged in recent remarks. In an interview with NBC “Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt at the Pentagon, Brown was asked what he thinks about Trump’s suggesting that he would allow Russia to have its way with NATO members if they don’t contribute enough to the alliance.
China has recruited current and former service members from “multiple” NATO countries, a top U.S. military official in the region said Feb. 12, warning that the scheme to bolster expertise for the People’s Liberation Army Air Force is ongoing despite public pressure from the U.S. and NATO allies.
An “unexpected” amount of engineering has the Air Force struggling to reach agreement with Boeing on a price tag for the E-7 Wedgetail radar plane, service officials said. “We’re having a hard time with that one getting a price agreement with Boeing. We're still in negotiations with them and that's not been finalized yet,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told reporters Feb. 13 at the Air & Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium.
Funerals began Feb. 13 for the three U.S. service members who were killed—among scores of others injured—last month following a drone attack in Jordan. But two weeks after the attack on the remote base, the Pentagon has not outlined any new moves to bolster defenses against the drone threat in the region.
Stratofortress pilots control six-decade-old hardware with a 185-foot wingspan—and the lives of the four or five Airmen onboard. But the moment the Vietnam War-era bomber’s wheels leave the ground, anything can happen—and some of the most important lessons cover more than routine flight procedures.
The Air National Guard's top officer made it clear Feb. 13 during a roundtable with journalists at the Air & Space Forces Association's Warfare Symposium what value he sees in the F-15EX Eagle II and that he wants more of them.
So you want to be a dog handler in the military—awesome!—but you have no idea where to start or what that journey looks like? No worries, we got you. The Military Working Dog Handler course is where all U.S. military canine handlers receive their training, and the 341st Training Squadron is responsible for training both handlers and dogs for all of the different branches of the military.