Breaking Defense
Moving to the development stage more than likely means that the Air Force has coalesced around a single fighter design made by a single prime contractor, said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst with AeroDynamic Advisory.
Military Times
Service members are in line for their biggest pay raise since 2003 next January, but lawmakers and advocates are questioning whether that will be adequate to keep military families in good financial health. That’s because the formula used to calculate annual pay hikes doesn’t take into account issues like short-term inflation spikes. The Congressional Budget Office has predicted a 6.1 percent jump in the consumer price index this year, but none of that extra expense is built into the military pay raise formula.
FedScoop
The Pentagon’s new Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) has hired nearly a dozen senior leaders to serve in its top positions—and met its June 1 deadline to reach full operating capability, FedScoop learned June 1. This news comes nearly six months after the Department of Defense launched a major organizational restructure to place a number of technology-driving components under this newly established office, with the ultimate aim to better scale digital and Al-enabled capabilities across its massive enterprise.
Breaking Defense
After months of speculation, in April the Air Force officially chose the Boeing E-7 Wedgetail to replace its decades-old AWACS planes. But there’s a lag between making the choice and flying the planes—during which Mitchell Institute Executive Director Douglas Birkey says Congress and the Air Force must work together in a hurry to minimize the American military’s vulnerability in the skies.
Defense One
The Defense Department knows cost increases due to inflation may begin to affect contracts. But, according to recent guidance, defense contracting officers are urged to “limit the scope” when using clauses for pay adjustments. “The current economic environment requires we understand the impacts of inflation to existing contracts and consider various approaches to manage risk of inflation to prospective Department of Defense (DOD) contracts,” John Tenaglia, the principal director for Defense Pricing and Contracting, wrote in a memo dated May 25.
Air Force Magazine
The Air Force is transitioning to more virtual training to give pilots an edge, saying some higher end maneuvers cannot be replicated in real-time training. Learn more on Air Force Magazine’s Live, Virtual & Constructive Training page.
Military Times
“Today, our competitors possess the means to strike critical infrastructure in the homeland with advanced kinetic capabilities such as intercontinental ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles, and sea- and air-launched advanced cruise missiles, while also possessing robust non-kinetic cyber and information capabilities. Beyond their current nuclear capabilities, on their current trajectories, both Russia and China will possess the conventional capabilities, across multiple domains, to present a persistent, proximate threat to North America. If left unresolved, these could place power projection capabilities at risk, resulting in the U.S. military being forced to ‘fight to get to the fight,’” writes U.S. Northern Command boss Gen. Glen D. VanHerck and U.S. Transportation Command commander Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost.
Breaking Defense
Lockheed Martin is willing to build a new wind tunnel to test hypersonic weapons, but the company hasn’t been able to get a revenue commitment from the U.S. government that would allow it to obtain the financing from Wall Street, Lockheed’s chief executive said June 2. During the Bernstein 38th Annual Strategic Decisions Conference, Lockheed CEO Jim Taiclet said the defense firm would need the Pentagon to sign onto a five-to-10-year minimum revenue commitment in order for Lockheed to finance the project.
The Drive
Images have emerged online that appear to show multiple examples of at least two different types of commercial or commercial-derivative drones with vertical takeoff and landing capability on the deck of the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong. The exact circumstances behind these pictures are not immediately clear. They do underscore the Chinese People's Liberation Army's ever-increasing efforts to develop and field various types of unmanned aircraft, including those that can operate together in networked swarms, and often with an eye toward performing various roles in the maritime domain.
Defense News
America’s top general, Gen. Mark A. Milley, and senior Swedish officials will open a major multinational exercise from Stockholm on June 7 as the Baltic Sea takes on a pivotal role in NATO’s northern defense calculus. With Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership, which is still pending, the famously shallow body of water would essentially become a sea surrounded almost exclusively by alliance countries, with Russia maintaining its access through naval sites in Kaliningrad in the south and the St. Petersburg region at the far eastern end.
One More Thing
Task & Purpose
Fans of the free-to-play military video game “War Thunder” are so passionate about the game that they’ve taken to sharing actual classified schematics for real-life military vehicles in an effort to win arguments with complete strangers online.
