A Chinese fighter jet had an “unsafe” and “unprofessional” interaction with a U.S. special operations C-130 aircraft in the South China Sea in June, according to two people with knowledge of the incident. The interaction, which has not been previously reported, comes amid more aggressive military actions by Chinese pilots in the East and South China seas involving Australian and Canadian aircraft.
The Pentagon has taken the first steps toward a future “hybrid space architecture” comprising military and commercial satellites in multiple orbits, moving to design a foundational cyber-protected network integration capability—i.e., a hack-proof (or close to it, anyway) “internet in space,” officials say. The hybrid space architecture concept is an outgrowth of Space Force chief Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond’s 2020 “Vision for Enterprise Satellite Communications.”
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.
A federal judge in Cincinnati has certified a national class-action lawsuit against the entire U.S. Air Force worldwide and issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Biden administration from enforcing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate on any service members who requested religious exemptions. In this local case that has now gone global, U.S. District Court Judge Matthew McFarland’s order stops the Air Force from discharging or disciplining service members for 14 days.
The Royal Air Force’s experiments with drone swarms show they can overwhelm enemy defenses, and the concept would be ready for action in a war, according to the U.K. military service’s chief of staff. Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston told the Global Air and Space Chiefs’ Conference 2022 in London that the RAF’s 216 Test and Evaluation Squadron and the Rapid Capabilities Office trialed five drone types in 13 experiments with various payloads and equipment over three years.
“At a time when China and Russia are seeking to overtake the United States in space—having grown their combined space assets by 70 percent from 2019 to 2021—we cannot afford any setbacks in our own space program. That’s why we created the Space Force in 2019—to maintain our edge in space. Active duty Air Force units with space missions were transferred to the new service to intensify focus on this critical domain. But there was a key exception: Space units in the National Guard were left under the Air Force because a corresponding ‘Space National Guard’ was never formed,” write Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
Drone camera footage defines much of the public’s view of the war in Ukraine: grenades quietly dropped on unwitting soldiers, eerie flights over silent, bombed-out cities, armor and outposts exploding in fireballs. Never in the history of warfare have drones been used as intensively as in Ukraine, where they often play an outsized role in who lives and dies. Russians and Ukrainians alike depend heavily on unmanned aerial vehicles to pinpoint enemy positions and guide their hellish artillery strikes.
President Joe Biden wants to sell advanced U.S. fighter jets to Turkey. Democrats are standing in his way. Now the House is voting on a bipartisan measure to significantly restrict Biden’s ability to sell F-16 fighter jets to Ankara, and a top Senate Democrat is already refusing to sign off on the transfer.
Fewer military families would recommend military life to those interested in serving, saying the hardships outweigh the pay and benefits. The 2021 Military Family Support Programming Survey found that 62.9 percent of military and veteran families would recommend military life, down from 74.5 percent in 2019.
The long-running effort to establish a National Desert Storm and Desert Shield Memorial in Washington, D.C., just off the National Mall passed a major milestone with a groundbreaking ceremony. But it was possible only because of a funding boost from Kuwait when private donations fell short.
A recently released document shows the U.S. Air Force assessed various alternatives to fielding its future LGM-35A Sentinel nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, as well as the possibility of deploying any such future weapon outside of traditional silos, including multiple concepts previously explored decades ago. Buying a land-based version of the U.S. Navy's Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missile, a new smaller missile with intercontinental range, or a design based at least in part on an existing commercial space launch rocket, as well as basing them in tunnels or at the bottom of deep lakes were all concepts that were examined.
The Space Force set a goal to replace custom-built ground stations with a common system that can be used with multiple types of satellites. But the effort is running into roadblocks due to the technical and management challenges of integrating satellites with a new ground architecture, Space Systems Command official Claire Leon said.
After decades of benign neglect, the United States deployed Vice President Kamala Harris to the Pacific Islands to declare that America is back, but an analyst said she wonders if the U.S. is doing enough in the face of the pandemic and China’s diplomatic maneuvers in the region. The administration told reporters on a phone call that “we’re significantly stepping up our game in the Pacific Islands.” Harris announced that the U.S. would open two new embassies in the islands and confirmed that the embassy in the capital of the Solomon Islands, shuttered in 1993, would reopen.
The best way to glimpse genuine U.S. military history is by visiting some of the nation’s best military museums. They range from high-tech educational institutions to historical sites, and all have plenty to feast your eyes and brains on.