The Air Force has stood up the first rapidly deployable units of Airmen designed to protect air bases in the Pacific or other potential hotspots from aerial attack.
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The House of Representatives passed its version of the 2027 National Defense Authorization bill and a new reconciliation package with $60 billion for the Pentagon on July 22, but both the policy and funding legislation face uncertain futures in the Senate.
Canada’s decision to join a European-centered sixth-generation fighter program as an observer is another sign that U.S. allies are increasingly looking elsewhere for key weapons system procurements, experts said.
The Space Force is tripling the size of one of its main launch procurement contracts from $5.6 billion to $17 billion to accommodate growing demand from government customers.
The Pentagon’s cost estimate for the Iran War has risen to $37.5 billion, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a congressional committee July 21—and without emergency supplemental funding, the military will have to “curtail” training to cover those costs, he added.
General Atomics plans to pitch a brand new design for a low-cost, attritable drone to take on missions now carried out by its MQ-9 Reaper.
Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman is warning lawmakers that the Space Force may eventually have to limit the number of launches it can support each year without additional resources to manage surging demand at its spaceports.
A dozen and a half Air Force Reservists formally transferred to the Space Force on July 15, becoming the new service’s first 18 part-time Guardians. The move is the culmination of more than two and a half years of work to create a system unlike any other military branch.
President Donald Trump said July 19 the new “bridge” Air Force One will soon receive additional modifications amid reported concerns about the state of its defensive capabilities.