NATO will offer Ukraine a new headquarters to manage its military assistance at its upcoming 75th anniversary summit in Washington, officials said, an assurance of the alliance’s long-term commitment to the country’s security that has been heralded as a “bridge” to Kyiv’s eventual membership.
“As a former secretary of the Air Force, I’ve ‘been there and done that’ when it comes to budget trade-offs, making hard choices and doing my best to work collaboratively within the halls of the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill to reach the best decisions possible for our military’s current and future readiness. So I understand the challenges that current Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin are facing as they consider programmatic alternatives for the fiscal 2026 budget and beyond. However, I am deeply troubled by recent reports suggesting the possible termination of the Next Generation Air Dominance system due to budgetary constraints,” writes Deborah Lee James, former secretary of the U.S. Air Force.
Air forces from Germany, France, and Spain are embarking on an unprecedented exercise that will take a variety of combat aircraft to the Asia-Pacific region in a multi-legged journey that will see them work together and with other air arms. With much attention consumed by the strategic implications of the war in Ukraine, Pacific Skies 24 reiterates that the ‘pivot to Asia,’ driven above all by China’s increasingly assertive military stance, also applies to Europe’s NATO allies, at least to a degree.
If Pyongyang ever decides to send troops to fight for Russia in Ukraine its forces would be used as cannon fodder, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said at a briefing on June 25. “If I were North Korean military personnel management, I would be questioning my choice of sending my forces to be cannon fodder in an illegal war against Ukraine. And we’ve seen the kinds of casualties that Russian forces,” Ryder said.
NATO allies on June 26 selected Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as NATO’s next boss, as the war in Ukraine rages on its doorstep and uncertainty hangs over the United States’ future attitude to the transatlantic alliance. Rutte will take over on Oct. 1 from Jens Stoltenberg of Norway, who is stepping down after a decade in the post.
President Joe Biden is issuing a proclamation pardoning thousands of U.S. veterans who were convicted under a military law that banned gay sex, making them eligible to apply for previously withheld benefits. In a statement announcing the clemency actions, Biden said he was “righting an historic wrong” to pardon former service members “who were convicted simply for being themselves.”
The Pentagon will decide later this summer what capabilities to focus on in the next round of Replicator, its push to quickly field high-need technology at scale. The first phase of the effort, championed by Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, is focused on attritable drones and other uncrewed systems. The goal is to deliver thousands of these platforms by the summer of 2025, and in the 10 months since it was announced, the Pentagon has solicited and selected systems and started fielding them.
Boeing’s Defense, Space and Security unit is placing a major bet on the Air Force’s next-generation fighter aircraft—whatever that may be. The company unveiled its new 1.1-million-square-foot, $1.8 billion classified Advanced Combat Aircraft facility to reporters in St. Louis on June 26, nearly two weeks after Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin hedged questions regarding the future of the Next-Generation Air Dominance program.
More military families are reporting that their well-being has declined over the past three years, citing financial strain, loneliness, and the stressors of military life as reasons why they would not recommend military service, according to a new survey from the Military Family Advisory Network.
A new report from the RAND Corporation suggests that China’s approach to space competition with the United States could increase the risk of unintended military escalation. Drawing on authoritative materials including leader speeches, defense white papers, and military education documents, RAND’s report paints a concerning picture of Chinese military thinking on space security. The People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) growing assertiveness, coupled with its historical reluctance to engage in crisis communication with the United States, is creating a volatile environment, says the study.
China, Russia, and others are taking aim more frequently at companies that serve the U.S. military, Gen. Timothy Haugh, the head of U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, told the crowd at TechNet Cyber on June 25.
Faced with a ticking clock on its readiness to fly two national security missions by the end of the calendar year, United Launch Alliance is now planning the second, and final, Space Force certification launch (Cert-2) for its Vulcan heavy-lift rocket for September, says ULA CEO Tory Bruno. “We’ll be targeting September, earlier in September rather than the end of the month, for Cert-2,” he told reporters June 26.
The A-10 Thunderbolt II is often lovingly referred to as the “grunt of the skies,” alluding to the nickname given to U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps infantry troops. If the A-10 is the Air Force’s grunt, then its pilots are gonna need some things broken down “Barney-style”—that is to say, into as few basic instructions as possible. Have no fear, the U.S. Air Force did just that for pilots who might have encountered the Soviet Union’s T-62 main battle tank. In order to teach the grunts of the sky how to take one of them down, the Air Force issued this marvelous coloring book.