Four months after military officials picked a modified crop duster as America’s newest counterterror plane, Air Force Special Operations Command is working to answer a crucial question: How do you fly it? “We’re going to have to pay a lot of attention to training on this,” AFSOC boss Lt. Gen. James C. “Jim” Slife told reporters in September. “We haven’t operated, at scale, a tail-dragger aircraft in quite some time.”
The most widely used version of the F-35 still can’t fly in lightning, and despite hardware and software modifications, the Pentagon doesn’t have a path forward to lift ongoing flight restrictions. In June 2020, the Pentagon’s F-35 Joint Program Office instated flight restrictions for the F-35A conventional takeoff and landing variant after damaged tubes were found inside its key lightning protection system, the Onboard Inert Gas Generation System, or OBIGGS.
Kristen Baldwin, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for science, technology, and engineering, talks about how the U.S. is advancing autonomous wingmen to stay ahead of adversaries.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III met his Indonesian counterpart to push stronger defense ties amid growing Chinese naval activity in the Indo-Pacific region. Austin, at a joint news conference after meeting with Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, said they discussed ways to deepen the two countries’ partnership, including through expanding interoperability and increasing investments in defense education.
In Episode 103 of the Aerospace Advantage podcast, “Hardened Shelters and UCAVs: Understanding the Chinese Threat Facing Taiwan,” John Baum chats with China expert Daniel Rice about a set of capabilities the People’s Liberation Army Air Force may bring to bear in a possible future cross-strait conflict. Based on an independent analysis of unclassified aerial imagery, it looks like the Chinese military may be seeking to harness airfields adjacent to the Taiwan Strait for permanent, sustained operations in the event of an attack. The existing and newly installed hardened aircraft shelters afford secure facilities for maintenance, refueling, and rearmament in the event of surge operations during conflict.
Space Systems Command has started market research for its next procurement of payload integration services. The Space Force is trying to identify industry interest in competing for a multi-year contract to integrate and operate rideshare payloads in national security and other U.S. government missions.
Turkey’s Baykar company has begun ground tests of its Bayraktar Kizilelma drone, described as the country’s first unmanned fighter aircraft. Accompanying imagery of the tests, at the Akinci Flight Training and Test Center in the northwestern province of Tekirdag, which included taxi runs ahead of its first flight, provide the best look so far at this unique uncrewed air vehicle. This would appear to be aimed at a range of combat roles and is also supposedly being developed for operations from aircraft carriers.
Poland accepted an offer from Germany to deploy additional Patriot air defense systems there following the deaths of two Polish civilians who were likely struck by an errant missile during a Russian barrage of Ukrainian cities. “With satisfaction, I accepted the proposal of the German Minister of Defense to deploy additional Patriot missile launchers in our country,” Mariusz Błaszczak, Poland’s deputy prime minister and minister of national defense, wrote on social media. “During today’s telephone talks with the German side, I will suggest that the system should be located at the border with Ukraine.”
The Air Force Academy hosting the 49ers for a week of training is part of the close relationship between the U.S. Armed Forces and the NFL. The club spent a week in Colorado Springs training for the 7,200 feet of elevation they experienced in Mexico City in their "Monday Night Football" showdown facing the Arizona Cardinals. The Air Force’s hospitality did not go unnoticed by Nick Bosa and his teammates, who, despite the cold, appreciated their time at the Academy.