USAF Lacks “Achievable Plan” for Prepositioning Materiel in Europe, IG Says
USAF Gathers Experts to Help it Tackle Physiological Episodes
OTS Merges Total Force and Commissioned Officer Training
Total Force Officer Training and Commissioned Officer Training will disappear from USAF’s Officer Training School by year’s end, and will be replaced instead with a new eight-week course that merges the programs for line and non-line officers. The move, which creates an “off-ramp for a limited number of non-line specialties,” looks to boost “the quantity and quality of” the leaders the institution graduates, according to a USAF release. Read the full story by Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory.
Exercise Aims to Strengthen Partnership With India
Seven months after US Pacific Command changed its name to Indo-Pacific Command, about 200 USAF airmen traveled to India for a bilateral exercise that participants called “extremely unique.” The fourth iteration of Cope India came nine years after the last; the exercise was previously held in 2004, 2005, and 2009. Read the full story by Jennifer Hlad.
RADAR SWEEP
President Trump criticized former defense secretary Jim Mattis on Wednesday, as acting Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan stepped into his new job and the military tried to make sense of the president’s plans for the war in Syria and Afghanistan. The Washington Post
Trump Gives New Pentagon Chief a Taste of His World View
On his first working day in charge of the Pentagon, Pat Shanahan got a taste of President Donald Trump’s scattershot way of looking at the world. Associated Press
Top U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Sees Peace Opportunity in 2019
The top U.S general in Afghanistan told NATO troops on Tuesday to prepare themselves to deal with “positive processes or negative consequences” as peace talks between the U.S. and the Taliban to end a 17-year war gain momentum. Reuters
How Women Took Over the Military Industrial Complex
From the executive leadership of top weapons-makers, to the senior government officials designing and purchasing the nation’s military arsenal, the United States’ national defense hierarchy is, for the first time, largely run by women. Politico
DOD CIO Gets Beefed-Up Authorities, Responsibilities Starting Tuesday
The Pentagon’s chief information officer woke up Tuesday morning with a good deal more power and influence than he had the day before. Federal News Network
Raytheon Gets $434 Million Contract to Modify AIM-9X Sidewinder Missiles
The contract covers 766 AIM-9X Block II and Block II Plus missiles, known as Sidewinders, as well as guidance units, optical target containers and training missiles. UPI