Ukraine may keep some of the F-16 fighter jets it’s set to receive from its Western allies at foreign bases to protect them from Russian strikes, a senior Ukrainian military officer said June 10. Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway have committed to providing Ukraine with over 60 U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets to help it fend off Russian attacks. Ukrainian pilots are currently undergoing training to fly the warplanes ahead of the deliveries expected to start later this year.
The United Nations Security Council passed a U.S.-drafted cease-fire deal aimed at halting eight months of bloody fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. The draft of the resolution, which President Joe Biden approved, was finalized June 9 after almost a week of negotiations among members of the 15-member council.
A long-range drone attack on a Russian airfield hundreds of miles behind the front lines may have damaged two advanced stealth jets, in what Ukraine claimed as the first ever successful strike on Moscow's Su-57 fighter aircraft.
The hostages in Gaza are being moved around, with Hamas shuttling some from one apartment to another to obscure their whereabouts, while others are believed to be in tunnels underground. All the while, at a “fusion cell” quietly formed in Israel last fall, American and Israeli intelligence and military analysts share imagery from drones and satellites, along with communications intercepts and any other information that comes their way that might offer a hint to the hostages’ locations.
The U.S. Space Force is closely watching the development of commercial satellite communications services that allow standard smartphones to connect directly to satellites, seeing the technology as potentially disruptive to existing military narrowband satcom systems like MUOS, officials said June 10.
It’s become axiomatic that the frontline between Russian and Ukrainian forces is the most physically brutal that Europe has seen since WWII. In terms of casualties and misery, it seems out of place in the modern era. At the same time, that frontline is almost certainly the most signal-dense conflict zone in human history.
The Qatar-based U.S. Air Force task force that’s been experimenting with unmanned technologies—including AI-designed, 3D-printed drones—may add a component on U.S. soil. The small group, based at Al Udeid Air Base, has a three-year “strategic workforce plan” that “envisions a stateside element that continues to develop and grow partnerships with the global innovation ecosystem,” said Col. Jeffrey Digsby, commander of Air Forces Central’s Task Force 99.
The Air Force on Sunday resumed airdropping humanitarian aid into Gaza after pausing operations for more than a month as Israel’s invasion of the city of Rafah unfolded. A C-130J transport aircraft assigned to the 41st Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, deployed from Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas, dropped 12,500 prepackaged military meals, Capt. Daniel de La Fé, a spokesperson for Air Forces Central, told Air Force Times.
As it continues to explore how to best leverage artificial intelligence, the Department of the Air Force is introducing a new platform for users to test a generative AI chatbot on unclassified networks. Launched by the Air Force chief information officer and the Air Force Research Laboratory on June 10, the so-called NIPRGPT platform will allow Airmen, Guardians, civilian employees, and contractors to interact with a chatbot on the Non-classified Internet Protocol Router Network (NIPRNet).
The Air Force says new federal standards governing “forever chemicals” will be incorporated into future cleanup efforts and may lead to more testing for on- and off-base residents who have had their water supplies contaminated. In April, the Environmental Protection Agency enacted new drinking water standards that set limits on exposure to PFAS—perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, chemicals that do not degrade in the environment and can build up in the body, hence the nickname forever chemicals
Less than two months into her new post as the Pentagon’s Chief Digital & Artificial Intelligence Officer, Radha Plumb is working on some big plans for the coming months. “Our goal is to at least start some of those announcements by the end of the summer,” Plumb told Breaking Defense in her first interview since taking the job. “But certainly, between the end of the summer through the fall, you’ll start seeing those publicly in terms of solicitations, solutions, that sort of thing.”
Boeing’s factory workforce has undergone a dramatic transformation in recent years. Legions of senior machinists retired when the pandemic hit and in the years since. The company, racing to meet demand for new jets as travelers returned to the skies, has been on a hiring spree to replenish its ranks.