The Air Force has announced it will merge the separate directorates that were overseeing Minuteman III and Sentinel into a single Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Systems Directorate. Brig. Gen. William Rogers will lead the new group.
An Air Force Academy cadet died on campus Sept. 4. Freshman Avery Koonce, 19, of Taylor, Texas, was found unconscious in her dormitory, according to a news release from the academy. “We lost an incredible teammate last night—while only with us for a short time, Avery positively impacted her unit, her intercollegiate team, and her class—her loss will be felt across USAFA,” said Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind, Air Force Academy superintendent, in a written statement.
As senior Space Force officials double down on their campaign to massively increase the service’s funding ahead of decision-making on the Pentagon’s fiscal 2026 budget request, a handful of priorities are at the top of the list for new monies. These include alternatives to GPS, more reliable satellite communications (SATCOM), and improved intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) to support warfighters on the battlefield, according to the Space Force vice chief.
Combat operations have never been a simple affair—and in a peer- or near-peer conflict, speed and complexity will ratchet up the pressure on commanders trying to decipher and control the battlespace.
In June 2023, members of the House Armed Services Committee attempted to set some guardrails in annual defense policy legislation for nascent efforts by the Air Force and Navy to field fleets of drone wingmen. ... But now the man who leads the tactical air and land forces subcommittee that originally offered the language, Virginia Republican Rep. Rob Wittman, tells Breaking Defense he does not have particular concerns about CCA costs.
The Space Force’s new dress uniforms are now not expected to be widely available to Guardians until nearly the end of 2025, and other new clothing items could also be released alongside them. ... The updated timeline comes after the service concluded fit testing for the seemingly science fiction-inspired dress uniforms in late 2023. Additionally, Fiocco told Military.com that “development for optional uniform items, such as a pullover sweater, are underway.”
The Defense Department and National Nuclear Security Administration recently inaugurated a new supercomputer in California, via a joint pursuit envisioned to expand U.S. computing capacity and simultaneously generate additional chemical and biological defense capabilities.
In the face of emerging threats around the globe, the U.S. and allies are rapidly growing aerial refueling capability to meet the challenge. As the KC-46A global fleet has more than 90 aircraft with tens of thousands of flight hours in aggregate, operators are optimizing operational concepts, accelerating preparation for sustainment logistics in a contested environment and driving evolutionary capability upgrades to outpace peer threats.
Private adversary air company Top Aces’ F-16 Vipers, the only ones currently in the hands of a private operator, are now flying with podded infrared search and track (IRST) systems. This follows Top Aces’ adding an internally integrated IRST to some of its A-4 Skyhawk jets and reflects a broader trend among commercial providers of ‘red air’ aggressors amid growing demand for more advanced threat sensor replication for training and testing purposes.
The United States expanded its hunt on Sept. 5 for Russia’s most elite cyberwarriors, indicting five members of the country’s military intelligence agency for attacks on Ukraine and American companies in the run-up to the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program has reported a new cost estimate that breaks the $2 trillion barrier to acquire and operate, including a revised aircraft and engine tab of $485 billion that essentially doubles the original price tag formulated based on Lockheed Martin's design.
Part of the pageantry of Air Force football will undergo a major change. No longer will the full cadet wing be required to attend home football games. The two exceptions will be the opening game on parents’ weekend, which took place this past Saturday, and the Oct. 5 contest vs. Navy. For other games at Falcon Stadium, a quarter of the cadets, or roughly 1,000, will be required to attend.