The Senate confirmed Naval Fleet Forces Commander Adm. Christopher W. Grady as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff late Dec. 16. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III is tentatively scheduled to perform Grady's swearing-in Dec. 20, the office of the Joint Chiefs confirmed. ...
National Security
Preparing for conflict in the Pacific will require more than learning to fly fighters out of austere locations—it will also call for small bomber crews to go on quick consecutive missions at unfamiliar locations. In a "bomber agile combat employment" (BACE) exercise Dec. 6-8, two ...
The U.K.'s. RAF Lakenheath on Dec. 15 became the first European base to receive a U.S. F-35A Lightning II six years after plans for the delivery were announced as part of an eventual basing of two squadrons of the fifth-generation aircraft. “The Valkyries are leading ...
The Senate passed the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act on Dec. 15, sending the annual policy bill to President Joe Biden’s desk with a host of provisions affecting the Air Force and Space Force and ensuring that Congress’s long-standing record of passing an NDAA every ...
The Air Force announced the release of its first doctrine publication on agile combat employment Dec. 14, laying out its core frameworks and concepts as the service looks to codify and develop the new operational approach.
The United Nations' secretary-general advocated for new restrictions on autonomous weapons as a U.N. group that negotiates weapons protocols started a week of meetings, in part, to discuss the matter. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addressed the Review Conference of the U.N.’s Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. ...
U.S. Air Forces in Europe hasn’t changed the way it operates even though Russia is massing forces on the Ukraine border, but U.S. and NATO allies are keeping a close watch on what Russia is doing, USAFE commander Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian said Dec. 13. ...
NATO members closest to the Russian threat are seeking “adjustments” to the alliance’s defense posture to show Russian President Vladimir Putin that America will defend NATO's eastern flank in the event of hostilities in Ukraine. Meanwhile, a Ukrainian defense official who spoke to Air Force ...
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall is focused on seven management priorities to give the service the combat power it needs, rationalizing space architectures, addressing USAF's supply chain vulnerabilities, and adding two new unmanned combat aircraft to the services' force mix.
