Some of the unmanned aerial vehicles that will fly alongside the Air Force’s fighter jet fleet in the future will likely be able to perform multiple missions from day to day, according to the head of Air Combat Command. Known as collaborative combat aircraft (CCA), the robotic wingmen will be part of a new family of systems for the Air Force’s Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program. The service plans to pair CCAs with the NGAD sixth-generation stealth fighter, as well as fighter jets already in the Air Force fleet, like the F-35 joint strike fighter.
The Biden administration will for the first time send controversial depleted-uranium munitions to Ukraine as part of a new $175 million package of military aid, the Pentagon announced Sept. 6. The decision comes after months of debate over the armor-piercing rounds, which are expected to be highly effective against Russian tanks. While the U.K. has already sent the same type of ammunition to Ukraine to arm its Challenger 2 tanks, this marks the first time the U.S. is sending the rounds.
Virtually every part of the Department of the Air Force’s drive to modernize is being shaped by Secretary Frank Kendall’s seven Operational Imperatives—lines of effort that address the most important and urgent challenges facing the Air Force today. Now, the department and industry are working together to develop solutions for each imperative, and the results will likely change the Air Force and Space Force for the next generation. Keep up with all the latest news on each Operational Imperative.
The pace at which the U.S. Defense Department is seeking and then deploying cutting-edge technologies, such as those fueled by artificial intelligence, can be slower than the clip at which new dangers arise, leaving troops at a potential disadvantage, according to one official. U.S. Central Command’s chief technology officer, Schuyler Moore, on Sept. 6 said there is a desire to tap “exquisite technologies, that exist both in the department and out in industry, inside a 12-month time frame” should the conditions be right.
The Biden administration is “closely considering” providing long-range fires and other capabilities to Ukraine, a State Department official overseeing arms transfers said. “We do need to continue to take a very close and deliberate look at what it is Ukraine needs,” Laura Cressey, director of regional security and arms transfers at the State Department’s political-military affairs bureau, said Sept. 6 at the Defense News Conference in Arlington, Va.
The National Security Agency just finished a strategic study on using artificial intelligence and machine learning for its missions, its director said Sept. 5. Without giving much detail, Gen. Paul Nakasone said his agency recently completed a “roadmap for AI/ML,” exploring questions such as how generative AI and machine learning will be used for missions and how it may affect NSA workers.
The Space Force’s Space Development Agency is soliciting industry proposals for a next set of satellites in low Earth orbit to track ballistic and hypersonic missile launched from anywhere around the world—satellites that will include new “fire control” sensors that will provide commanders with pinpoint coordinates to target those incoming missiles.
U.S. Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman on Sept. 6 unveiled a new mission statement for the service—in an effort to more clearly communicate what the Space Force does and why it was created. The new mission statement—“Secure our nation’s interests in, from, and to space”—was crowdsourced from across the ranks of the Space Force.
The weeklong clashes between rival U.S.-backed militias in eastern Syria, where hundreds of American troops are deployed, point to dangerous seams in the coalition that has kept a lid on the defeated Islamic State group for years. That could be an opportunity for the radical group to reemerge.
For fans of military aviation—or flying in general—in the civilian world, the chance to get a ride in the cockpit of a combat aircraft is very likely top of many a bucket list. But there’s surely one in-service military jet that has a little more allure than most, for which getting strapped into is just the prelude to a trip into the stratosphere. That jet is the unique U-2 Dragon Lady spy plane, and one civilian photographer recently got a chance to fly in it and execute an air-to-air shoot unlike any other.
