As the United States closes out its participation in the 1992 Open Skies Treaty, some in government are starting to consider what might come next for the Air Force unit that has handled those foreign surveillance flights for decades. Lawmakers earlier this month released a ...
Lawmakers want to quash the prospect of buying new armed overwatch planes for special operations troops or the Air Force in the next few years, as part of the final draft of the 2021 defense policy bill released this month. They seek to block SOCOM ...
Lawmakers weighed in on three of the Air Force’s top-priority technology development efforts in the final draft of the fiscal 2021 defense policy bill, offering more money and more oversight as the programs mature. The Low-Cost Attritable Aircraft Technology initiative, hypersonic weapons, and the Next-Generation ...
Every year, Congress and the military debate which combat assets should head to the boneyard and which have more life left in them. Lawmakers often opt to keep Air Force systems that bring jobs to their districts, which complicates matters as the service looks to ...
Senate appropriators on Nov. 10 released a $696 billion defense funding bill for fiscal 2021 that offers the Department of the Air Force less money than it requested for most spending accounts. The proposal comes more than a month into the fiscal year, as the ...
The State Department on Nov. 10 formally approved a potential $23.37 billion arms sale to the United Arab Emirates, including up to 50 F-35s, 18 MQ-9s, and both air-to-air and air-to-ground munitions. The move, which is opposed by some on Capitol Hill, comes on the ...
The House Armed Services Committee argued its way through its version of the fiscal 2021 defense policy bill on July 1, ultimately approving the annual legislation 56-0. The unanimous vote is a stark departure from the committee’s 33-24 vote last year, which largely fell along ...
Congress wants to pump the brakes on U.S. Special Operations Command’s effort to buy a new plane for armed overwatch in remote areas, after many lawmakers recently supported a similar Air Force program. Lawmakers call on Pentagon leadership to describe why SOCOM would need such ...
Service members will be able to anonymously seek mental health treatment, without their chain of command being notified, under new proposed legislation. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) introduced the “Brandon Act,” which aims to protect service members from hazing, bullying, and any other issue if they ...
A year after the House Armed Services Committee passed its fiscal 2020 defense policy bill in an unusually partisan fashion, the panel appears to be taking a step back from major fireworks and aerospace programmatic shifts in its 2021 legislation. The full committee’s version of ...
The House Armed Services military personnel subcommittee wants to require the Defense Department to include more detail in its annual military suicide reports to Congress, including what steps military departments are taking to make it feel less controversial for troops to ask for help if ...
Congress wants the Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command to provide a plan on how to counter emerging threats from foreign countries while continuing to fight terrorism and fix ethics and professionalism concerns in the Command. While USSOCOM has grown to face new threats, Congress ...