The Air Force slashed the F-35 buy in its 2023 budget request to just 33 jets—15 fewer than it bought in 2022 and 27 fewer than 2021, saying it preferred to spend that money on other needed modernization programs and wait until the Block 4 version of the jet is ready. It’s $4.6 billion unfunded priorities list recently sent to Capitol Hill looks to close that gap slightly, asking for $921 million for seven more strike fighters, bringing the service’s total 2023 buy to 40 F-35As—still eight fewer than what it bought in 2022. The Space Force gave Congress its own $6 million unfunded priorities list. More than half that request ($327 million) would go to classified programs, while the rest would be split between more resilient missile warning and missile tracking ($200 million) and weapons systems sustainment ($112 million).

MIHAIL KOGALNICEANU AIR BASE, Romania—NATO jets scrambled from this Romanian base four times in the last 20 days to intercept Russian fighters that launched from Crimea, flying toward NATO territory along the Black Sea coast. Each time, the Russian jets turned away without incident, but the flights represent a growing threat to the alliance. The intent of the Russian practice was not immediately clear to the NATO air policing commanders and Combined Air Operations Centre in Torrejon, Spain. But, it underscored the importance of the mission to protect the skies over what defense officials say is the NATO front line in the Russian war with Ukraine.

The Air Force-managed modernization of America’s ground-based nuclear missiles has emerged as a test-bed for the use of digital twins—virtual models of real weapons systems—at every stage of the program lifecycle, its chief told the Space Symposium April 7. “What the digital environment allowed us to do was to bring our multi disciplinary engineering models in with our cost models, to examine a trade space” where different capabilities and different ways to achieve them could be costed against each other, USAF Col. Jason E. Bartolomei, the system program manager for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent program, said during the Space Symposium.

While the Defense Department is looking to expand opportunities for service members to seek professional help for mental health issues, the DOD is still struggling with institutional policies and norms that wind up hurting those who do get help and discouraging others, lawmakers and advocates say.