The Senate Armed Services Committee has acted quickly following last Thursday’s formal nomination by the President of Gen. Norton Schwartz to be Air Force Chief of Staff to get a confirmation hearing date established—July 22. On that day, both Schwartz and Michael Donley, nominated to be the new Air Force Secretary, are to appear to respond to questioning, some of which likely will address the hot topic of the day, the KC-X tanker issue. At the same hearing, Gen. Duncan McNabb, currently vice chief of staff, is slated to appear for his confirmation hearing to replace Schwartz as head of US Transportation Command.
The United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force has unveiled a new electronic warfare drone designed to fly with fighter jets into contested airspace, including alongside its fleet of F-35s. RAF says it plans to develop models that draw on the U.S. Air Force’s approach of mating unmanned systems with crewed platforms.