Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the Department of the Air Force to pause all planning related to its “Re-Optimization for Great Power Competition” effort—a move that leaves a sweeping plan to transform the Air Force and Space Force in limbo.
National Security
It’s time to rethink the factors shaping U.S. defense policy. The United States is presently confronted with the most significant national security challenge since its founding. In the past three years, the global deterrence networks that the United States developed...
RAF Lakenheath, U.K. On the night of April 13, 2024, U.S. Air Force crews took to the skies in the Middle East, having received word that Iran had launched one-way attack drones and missiles at Israel. In one F-15E in...
News coming out of the White House since President Donald J. Trump’s inauguration Jan. 20 is striking in its velocity. The subjects of his Executive Orders and policy memos were unsurprising, fulfilling oft-repeated campaign promises, but the speed, volume, and details—or lack of them—caught everyone ...
Frank Kendall, the most consequential Air Force Secretary in years, departed the Pentagon in January at the end of an eventful three-and-a-half-year tenure as the 26th Secretary of the Air Force. His most important contribution, he thinks: Raising “a sense...
More Air Force, a Missile Shield, and the Pentagon’s New Boss Allvin says today’s Air Force is too small. Can he convince Hegseth? By A&SF Magazine Staff A year into his role as Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. David W....
Iranian Threats in the Middle East By Chris Gordon When Lt. Col. Dustin Johnson was ordered to deploy to the Middle East last year, he and his fellow F-22 Raptor pilots prepared for an unusual challenge. As America’s premier air...
Creating the Space Force to counter China and Russia answered a rising threat. Now investments are needed to ensure space superiority. The first Space Race began in October 1957 with the Soviet Union’s successful launch of Sputnik, the first man-made...
New Chinese Combat Aircraft By John A. Tirpak Imagery of two new, tailless Chinese military aircraft disseminated on social media in December likely reveals a prototype stealth medium bomber and a new lambda-winged technology demonstrator, aerospace experts and former Air...