Radar Sweep
Snapshot: DOD and COVID-19
Here's a look at how the Defense Department is being impacted by and responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pentagon Chief Esper Talks with Chinese Counterpart as Tensions Soar
Amid deteriorating U.S.-China relations, further aggravated by a highly unusual trip to Taiwan this weekend by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex M. Azar II, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper talked for 90 minutes on Aug. 6 with his Chinese counterpart, Defense Minister Wei Fenghe.
Mitchell Institute Nuclear Deterrence Forum Featuring Ilan Berman, Senior VP, American Foreign Policy Council
The Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies hosted American Foreign Policy Council Senior Vice President Ilan Berman for a timely discussion of the potential implications of Iran's impending 25-year strategic cooperation agreement with China. The conversation also covers the latest on the explosion at the Natanz nuclear plant, Iran’s recent military exercises, and the future of U.S. policy toward Iran and the Middle East more broadly.
Pentagon Code Library Will Support Multiple Clouds
Military information is too important to store in a single cloud. Although the $10 billion JEDI contract dominates public conversation about military cloud services, the Pentagon’s Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy says the department is creating its own repository of shareable code for managing the constellations of clouds within the Pentagon.
Air Force Eyes Hypersonic VIP Passenger Aircraft in New Deal with Aviation Startup
The U.S. Air Force has awarded the Hermeus Corporation a contract to support its work on a hypersonic aircraft powered by an advanced combined-cycle jet engine. The service says that the deal could be a stepping stone to fielding a high-speed plane for VIP transport and other missions in the future.
OPINION: Why Giving the Space Force Naval Ranks Might Widen the Schism with the Air Force
“Culturally, the Space Force leadership was raised in an environment where social standing and kudos went to the “warfighters”: fighter pilots and those who could produce effects on the ground,” writes retired Air Force Lt. Col. Peter Garretson, a senior fellow in defense studies at the American Foreign Policy Council and space consultant who previously served as director of Air University’s Space Horizons Task Force. “The result is that, while a small navalist cultural tradition in the Space Force and its precursor does exist, it is not widespread and confined mostly to its intellectuals.”
GPS M-Code Gapfiller Installed for Trial Run, Space Force Eyes Operational Acceptance This Fall
The Space Force announced that it has completed a major upgrade to its GPS Military-Code signal that will improve anti-jamming and anti-spoofing capabilities for users.
Special Ops Nominee Grilled over Charge His Firm May Have Trained Khashoggi's Killers
The White House nominee to a top Pentagon post claimed Aug. 6 to have no knowledge of published allegations that a security firm he worked for may have been involved in training the Saudi hit team that murdered and dismembered Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
VA Needs a Cyber Audit of its Governmentwide Financial Services Center
The accounting shared services program—used by a range of federal agencies and programs—needs to ensure its systems are secure.
National Air Force Museum Opens New Exhibit on Air Force One
The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force has announced that it will open a new exhibit titled “Flying the President,” featuring memorabilia flown aboard Air Force One from administrations ranging from Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Donald Trump.
Live War Ordnance Discovered at Museum
The museum shut down early on Aug. 5 after Austin Truex, an intern at the Elkhorn Valley Museum in Norfolk, Neb., found the ordnance among its stored items. The grenade, ammunition, and ordnance were found while reorganizing storerooms in the facility.