Gen. Chance Saltzman, the U.S. Space Force’s chief of space operations, visited SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica this week, and attended the sixth test flight of SpaceX’s Starship rocket on Nov. 19. Saltzman watched the Starship launch alongside SpaceX founder Elon Musk, President-elect Donald Trump, and a number of lawmakers.
Ukraine fired a number of British Storm Shadow cruise missiles into Russia’s Kursk region on Nov. 20, a day after firing American long-range missiles into the country, according to Pentagon and Ukrainian officials.
American officials warned Nov. 20 of a “potential significant air attack” on Kyiv and said the U.S. Embassy in the capital would be closed “out of an abundance of caution” after Ukrainian forces struck an arms depot inside Russia with U.S.-supplied weapons systems.
The Pentagon will send Ukraine anti-personnel land mines, a U.S. official said, in a response to what Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said were changing dynamics on the front lines. “They’ve asked for these, and so I think it’s a good idea,” Austin said while speaking with a group of traveling reporters.
Citing a recent American arms sale to Taiwan, China rejected U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s invitation to meet with his top Chinese counterpart Defense Minister Adm. Dong Jun at a high-profile summit for Asian military leaders in Laos on Nov. 20, two senior defense officials confirmed.
The Defense Innovation Unit on Nov. 20 announced new prototype awards for software to enable better command and control and autonomous drone swarm operations. It’s part of the Replicator program, which is working to field large numbers of cheap, highly autonomous drones to deter Chinese military activity in the Pacific.
In recent years, Air Force leaders have put a renewed emphasis on electronic warfare, recognizing the importance of the nonkinetic fight. As new kinds of EW threats emerge from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and more, learn more about how USAF is keeping up with the change.
The Marine Corps F-35C Lightning II aircraft debuted its combat airstrike capabilities for the first time earlier this month when it targeted weapon storage facilities in Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen, the Navy confirmed in a press release on Nov. 20.
Hovering hundreds of yards away, the small quadcopter drone was nearly invisible to the naked eye, but its size didn’t make it any less of a potential threat to operations on the ground here. Spotted by sensors, defending personnel dispatched their own drone—this one armed with a net. A few minutes later, in the Colorado air, the friendly drone snagged the interloper, popped a parachute and both floated harmlessly to the ground.
Joshua Conine, SAIC’s Director of Space Command and Control (C2) Growth, identifies the key elements in large C2 systems in the U.S. Air Force and Space Force, and how SAIC creates resilient and distributed architectures that support Battle Management.
Lockheed Martin is preparing to launch its next technology demonstration spacecraft in early 2025, on a Firefly Aerospace Alpha launch vehicle, with an eye toward future U.S. military and civil programs and the international market.
The U.S. Army is bypassing some of venture capital’s best-funded drone makers to buy technology from a little-known Utah manufacturer. Salt Lake City-based Teal Drones has been selected as the winner of a military program to provide thousands of small surveillance drones, according to a regulatory filing and an Army document viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The United Kingdom has announced sweeping cuts of its Armed Forces as it seeks to save money, despite the precarious security situation in Europe and elsewhere. The Royal Air Force, British Army, and Royal Navy will also lose frontline equipment, and it’s not necessarily clear how capabilities will be maintained once these assets are withdrawn.
As anyone who’s served on an air installation can tell you, planes can’t fly without extensive ground support—and I’m happy to report that “Masters of the Air” gives those service members and their vehicles some time in the spotlight.
