The Air Force’s overall plan to reorganize under the heading of “re-optimization” for great power competition is inching forward, with officials using this week’s Air and Space Forces Association to make the case for why stark organizational changes are needed.
A month and a half into its offensive into Russia’s western Kursk region, the Ukrainian Army faces difficult decisions over where best to commit its limited forces. Moscow’s troops have begun counterattacking in the area, reclaiming a few villages and threatening Ukraine’s ability to hold onto the territory it has seized. ... Ukraine and Russia are also engaged in air assaults, targeting each other’s military bases and energy infrastructure as each side tries to degrade the other’s capacity to sustain the war effort.
Pagers used by hundreds of members of the militant group Hezbollah exploded near simultaneously in Lebanon and Syria on Sept. 17, killing at least nine people—including an 8-year-old girl—and wounding several thousand, officials said. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed Israel for what appeared to be a sophisticated, remote attack.
Members of the National Defense Strategy Commission say they want their new report, which asserts the United States is woefully unprepared to compete militarily with China, to instill a sense of urgency in Congress and make an impact on the presidential election, though they acknowledge the attention of many senior lawmakers is elsewhere.
General Atomics, which is one of two finalists for the first increment of the USAF’s high-stakes Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program gave The War Zone a close look at their design, as well as the closely related XQ-67A Off-Board Sensing Station (OBSS) drone. The company brought the CCA model and the actual XQ-67A OBSS to the show floor at the Air & Space Force Association’s annual Air, Space & Cyber convention just outside of Washington, D.C.
Capella Space, a provider of Earth observation services using synthetic aperture radar satellites, has been awarded a $15 million contract by the U.S. Air Force to modernize its sensor and data collection capabilities for military applications.
The Air Force's top enlisted leader said there’s a desire to let trainees at the service's boot camp carry real rifles, a change that would mirror long-standing norms for other military branches. Last month, Air Education and Training Command officials announced that Airmen and Guardians will start carrying practice M4 Carbine weapons during their nearly eight weeks of basic military training—a previous practice that had stopped in 2012.
Russia’s plan to add 180,000 troops will increase the risk of accidents like drones and missiles entering NATO territory, the commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe and NATO Allied Air Command told reporters. Hastily-trained and reluctant conscripts pouring into Ukraine and conducting drone and other operations is “something we're definitely concerned about,” Gen. James Hecker said.
The recent addition of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance is opening up new opportunities for members to better work together in the Arctic, where Russian activity has been increasing. That could mean a new combined air operations center, or CAOC “fairly shortly,” U.S. Air Forces Europe and NATO Allied Air Command Gen. James Hecker said at the Air & Space Forces Association's Air, Space & Cyber conference.
Norway’s Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace is opening up a new missile production facility in Virginia as global demand continues to rise amid major conflicts playing out in Ukraine and the Middle East, the company said Sept. 17.
Italy is to purchase 25 extra F-35 jets as well as new Eurofighters as its defense procurement spending rises 16.8 percent this year to €9.3 billion, or $10.3 billion, a new budget document revealed on Sept. 17. Rome will also invest half a billion euros in 2024 on development of the Global Combat Air Programme sixth-generation fighter, the document stated.
Once her tenure as chief of U.S. Transportation Command comes to a close, Gen. Jackie Van Ovost is planning to put much of her energy into helping build out America’s science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) talent pipeline, with a sharp focus on empowering minorities.
Honeywell has launched its Stationary and Mobile UAS Reveal and Intercept system, or SAMURAI, which is designed to counter swarm drones and protect critical assets in an increasingly contested airspace, the company announced Sept. 16.
Workforce fluctuations as Boeing ramps up F-15EX production and sunsets the F/A-18 Super Hornet line are driving up cost and inefficiency, and recovery from those challenges will not be immediate, the head of the company’s fighter programs told Breaking Defense.
Boeing is designing a larger, land-based version of its uncrewed MQ-25 tanker, targeting U.S. Air Force (USAF) future refueling plans including topping up Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) in contested airspace.
From concerts and balls to commemorative flights, the U.S. military community is celebrating the day that the U.S. Air Force became an independent branch of the military, 77 years ago. The Department of the Air Force was formally established on Sept. 18, 1947, months after the July 26 signing of the National Security Act.
