Military.com
A new central office in the Pentagon will work with the military and battlefield commanders in an attempt to limit the number of civilian casualties overseas following recent U.S. strikes that killed women and children. Plans for the so-called Civilian Protection Center of Excellence were unveiled following a months-long review ordered by Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III in January.
Breaking Defense
Each year, the Pentagon spends billions of dollars upgrading older aircraft, buying new ones, and developing super-secret, next-generation capabilities. But the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Bradley Bowman and Maj. Brian Leitzke argue that more needs to be done to ensure the Air Force has a steady supply of the most critical piece of the puzzle: pilots.
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The Wall Street Journal
Taiwan unveiled plans to boost military spending by its largest margin in 15 years in response to escalating tensions with China that come amid deteriorating ties between Beijing and Washington. Taiwan’s cabinet proposed a record-setting baseline military budget of $13.7 billion for next year. That would amount to an increase of nearly 13 percent over this year’s defense budget—the largest year-to-year jump since at least 2007.
Breaking Defense
The Pentagon’s chief information officer is committed to implementing a zero trust architecture across the department in the next five years and will be releasing a new strategy to get there as soon as September. “What we’re aiming for is by 2027 to have zero trust deployed across a majority of our enterprise systems in the Department of Defense,” DOD CIO John Sherman said. “Five years. That’s an ambitious goal … but the adversary capability we’re facing leaves us no choice but to move at that level of pace.”
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.
Defense News
Fighter jets from Japan and South Korea are making their debut at a large-scale air combat exercise in northern Australia along with F-35 fifth-generation stealth fighters from the host nation and the United States. The aircraft and personnel from the U.S. allies will take part in the biennial Exercise Pitch Black alongside those from 15 other nations, making up a force of over 100 aircraft and 2,500 personnel at what the Royal Australian Air Force calls its “premier multinational air combat exercise.”
Air Force Times
For years, Air Force officials have bemoaned the growing number of Americans who are too overweight for military service, have a criminal record, or are simply uninterested in enlisting. Recruiters are struggling to hit the service’s goal for new Airmen in what they call the toughest year since 1999. But Airmen who have amassed followings on YouTube, America’s most popular social media platform, told Air Force Times that even after the coronavirus pandemic temporarily shut down in-person recruitment, the military still doesn’t understand what it needs to do to meet Generation Z and Millennials where they are: online.
FedScoop
As the threat of laser strikes against pilots escalates, the Federal Aviation Administration is assessing advanced laser eye protection engineered by the Air Force Research Laboratory for more widespread commercial use. Years in development, those tangerine-ish-colored lenses on notably dainty spectacles were one of multiple mechanisms and capabilities AFRL officials highlighted for Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen H. Hicks during her stop at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
Business Insider
Even as Sweden prepares to join NATO, Sweden's air force has a problem. Its most experienced fighter pilots are quitting. “In the fall, around half of the Swedish Armed Forces’ fighter pilots may take leave or resign altogether,” the Swedish broadcaster SVT reported in July. One problem is a change to the retirement system, according to the trade union representing the pilots.
One More Thing
Task & Purpose
What’s the best advice you ever received while you were in the military? We asked our readers that very question. Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps, what was something you were told that has stuck with you and served you well? Needless to say, the answers did not disappoint. Readers provided hundreds of replies on Facebook, on Twitter, and via email in which they laid out what they had learned from their time in the military.
