A Jan. 20 meeting of Ukraine-supporting governments ended without Germany giving Poland the OK to transfer German-made tanks to Kyiv. U.S. officials subsequently tried to downplay that outcome of the 54-nation confab at Ramstein Air Base. “This isn’t really about one single platform,” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said after the meetings. “Our goal … is to provide the capability that Ukraine needs to be successful in the near term.”
“In the military, one of the most stressful parts of relocating to a new assignment, second only to finding a home, is securing child care. The post-COVID economy has driven cost and competition for child care to all-time highs, leaving service members to figure out the challenging question of how to pay for something they have to cover,” writes Air Force Lt. Col. Ernest "Nest" Cage, currently a senior defense fellow at the Center for a New American Security.
The Space Development Agency (SDA) is seeking industry assistance in crafting a project to test whether space-based sensors can be used to gather data from US ballistic and hypersonic missiles tests—cutting the costs to the Defense Department by millions of dollars, according to a senior SDA official. Currently, DOD uses ships and aircraft to collect telemetry, GPS signals, and other data from test missiles after launch to study their performance, and in the case of a malfunction that might cause harm, be able to destroy them.
The Department of Defense plans to leverage the four vendors that were recently awarded its major enterprise cloud computing contract to experiment with the implementation of so-called zero-trust principles in a commercial cloud environment. Zero trust is a concept that essentially assumes networks are already compromised and requires organizations to validate users, devices and data continuously.
Seven months after declaring the launch of a new “war economy” in France, President Emmanuel Macron has unveiled plans to spend hundreds of billions of euros on defense investments that will “transform” the military over the next decade. The nation’s next six-year military programming law—known in French as the “loi de programmation militaire,” or LPM—will shape the nation’s defense spending between 2024-2030.
The U.S. Air Force's first operational F-15EX Eagle II fighters will not be equipped with conformal fuel tanks, or CFTs, according to a newly released Pentagon report. A lack of CFTs will significantly reduce the F-15EX's range, which has been a major selling point for the type in the past. Mention of the CFT decision was included in the most recent annual report from the Pentagon's Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, or DOT&E, which was released Jan. 19.
The Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF) Command has signed a deal to buy 12 Block 70 F-16 fighter jets from the US in a bid to help modernize its aging air force. As announced by the armed forces’ official website, the deal was signed Jan. 19 by Royal Air Force Commander Brigadier General Pilot Muhammad Fathi Hiasat and U.S. Deputy Chief of mission in Amman Rohit Nepal. According to the Jordanian statement, the deal comes within the framework of boosting defense capabilities and military deterrence, to increase the level of combat readiness.
The availability of a new GPS navigation signal for civilian users is creating market opportunities in so-called satellite-based augmentation systems—known as SBAS—that countries around the world are developing or upgrading to support transportation and other industries, said Andre Trotter, Lockheed Martin’s vice president of navigation systems. Six GPS 3 satellites that broadcast the L1C signal have been launched since 2018, the most recent one last week.
Like many a fledgling pilot, Air Force Lt. Luis Leon “chair flew” endless missions using a stick and a cardboard display of a T-6A Texan II instrument panel. Resting atop a plastic clothes basket in his dorm room at Laughlin Air Force Base outside Del Rio, his “cockpit” was a crude and archaic teaching aid that might have cost $10 altogether. But it was highly effective. It taught Leon a pre-flight checklist so critical that a single mistake can be deadly.
As far as his day job goes, MSgt. Mario Jaramillo is living the dream serving as the superintendent of sports and e-sports at the Air Force Services Center. “I can’t see myself doing anything else when I retire,” Jaramillo said. No, he’s not just saying that. He’s come a long way considering gaming became a part of his life by accident.