The Associated Press
More than 100 Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russia on Sept. 29, officials said, sparking a wildfire and setting an apartment block alight in one of the largest barrages seen over Russian skies since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Russia’s Ministry of Defense reported that it had shot down 125 drones overnight across seven regions. The southwestern region of Volgograd came under particularly heavy fire, with 67 Ukrainian drones reportedly downed by Russian air defenses.
Breaking Defense
The Pentagon has formally requested that lawmakers shut down a legislative proposal that would mandate an independent assessment of the establishment of a separate cyber service, three sources familiar with the matter told Breaking Defense.
The Wall Street Journal
Hassan Nasrallah and other senior leaders of Hezbollah were under siege as they gathered Sept. 27 in a bunker more than 60 feet beneath the surface of a bustling working- class neighborhood in southern Beirut. ... Israel’s air force struck the bunker with about 80 tons of bombs, according to several people familiar with the situation. The attack used a series of timed, chained explosions to penetrate the subterranean bunker, a senior Israeli military official said. When it was over, a pillar of orange smoke rose above Beirut. And Hassan Nasrallah, the fierce and charismatic Islamist who had led Hezbollah for more than three decades, was dead.
Defense One
When L3Harris Technologies bought Aerojet Rocketdyne for $4.7 billion last year, the rocket-motor-builder was thousands of motors behind schedule. Now, just over a year into the acquisition, Aerojet says it’s getting back on track.
The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies
In this episode of the Aerospace Advantage, Heather “Lucky” Penney of the Mitchell Institute team chats with Col. Jason Herring, commander of the 621st Contingency Response Wing about sustaining airpower at the edge. Whether responding to a humanitarian disaster or facilitating distributed air operations via the ACE construct, success comes down to the Airmen facilitating expeditionary operations.
Defense One
The U.S. military speaks frequently about the lessons they’re learning from the war in Ukraine. ... But at some of the military’s key centers for studying warfare, the services appear to treat the grinding yet tech-forward war with NATO’s top potential adversary as just one topic among many. Few analysts are tasked to study the war full-time, according to a Defense One review of service staffing.
Defense News
“Ukraine’s innovative drones are damaging forces and war-supporting industry across western and southern Russia. In a visit to the White House on Sept. 26, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked for more help for long-range strikes. He received modest assistance. President Joe Biden said the U.S. would provide the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW), an unpowered glide bomb with a range of over 60 miles,” write William Courtney, an adjunct senior fellow at RAND and former U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan, Georgia, and a U.S.-Soviet commission to implement the Threshold Test Ban Treaty, and John Hoehn, an associate policy researcher at RAND.
The Washington Post
U.S. officials on Sept. 27 said they have agreed to a two-stage shift in the American military presence in Iraq that will allow for continued operations against Islamic State militants in Syria, but pointedly disputed Baghdad’s earlier assertions that a near-total withdrawal is underway.
Military.com
Military bases throughout the southeastern U.S. were still assessing damage to their installations on Sept. 27 after Helene made landfall in Florida the prior evening as a Category 4 hurricane, causing massive flooding and deaths. More than 4,000 members of the National Guard had been deployed to help out in the wake of the storm, which clocked winds around 130 mph but was quickly downgraded to a tropical storm early Sept. 27 as it began to slow. Storm surges, power outages, and widespread flooding occurred along the storm's path, including at bases such as MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa.
DefenseScoop
The Air Force is currently taking a more calculated approach to planning, developing and buying next-generation platforms—putting some of the service’s future aircraft programs in limbo as it looks for more clarity over the next few months.
SpaceNews
The U.S. Space Force awarded a $25.3 million contract to defense tech startup Anduril Industries. Under the agreement announced Sept. 27, Anduril will enhance the data integration and communication systems of the Space Surveillance Network. The SSN, first deployed in the late 1950s, is a global network of sensors including conventional radars, phased-array radars, and telescopes. These assets are used to track satellites, space debris, and to provide early warnings of ballistic missile launches.
Defense News
In the coming years, the Space Development Agency plans to launch hundreds of satellites to low Earth orbit to track missiles and support targeting missions. But what happens when those spacecraft, each built to last about five years, are no longer operational?
Fox News
Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula reacts to the latest news that Israel took out a high-ranking Hezbollah leader during an appearance on ‘Cavuto Live.’
One More Thing
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Ukrainian soldiers are being treated to puppet shows to boost their morale. Valeriy Dzekh ran a popular puppet theater in Kharkiv before the war, and is now performing a new play about a man who loses and then regains his self-confidence.
