Defense One
Agencies across the federal government are deploying personnel and resources in response to the assassination attempt on Donald Trump on July 13, which left the former president mostly unharmed but at least one bystander at the Pennsylvania campaign rally dead.
The Associated Press
Israel said it targeted Hamas’ shadowy military commander in a massive strike July 13 in the crowded southern Gaza Strip that killed at least 90 people including children, according to local health officials. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “there still isn’t absolute certainty” that Mohammed Deif and a second Hamas commander, Rafa Salama, were killed.
The New York Times
In a clear night sky above the shores of Odesa, the faint glow from missiles streaks over the Black Sea. For much of the war, it was one-way traffic, with Russia using the occupied Crimean Peninsula first as a launchpad for its full-scale invasion and then as a staging ground for routine aerial bombardments. Ukraine, now armed with American-made precision missiles, is for the first time capable of reaching every corner of Crimea—and the missiles are increasingly flying in both directions.
SpaceNews
The U.S. military is poised to award an estimated $3 billion multiyear contract for commercial data and analytics services to monitor potential threats across the Indo-Pacific region, a focal point of global geopolitics and a priority theater for the Department of Defense. The program, known as Long-Range Enterprise Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Activity (LEIA), seeks to procure a wide spectrum of commercial data and advanced AI-driven analytics, integrating information from ground, aerial, and space-based platforms.
The Wall Street Journal
A Russian plot to kill one of Europe’s most prominent defense-industry executives signals a significant escalation in Moscow’s covert efforts to sabotage Western weapons production and weaken support for Ukraine, Western officials said.
POLITICO
Ukrainian leaders are mostly satisfied with the results at the NATO Summit in Washington—especially since it could’ve gone much worse. Kyiv didn’t get everything it wanted, but NATO agreed to declare that the country’s eventual membership is “irreversible,” an upgrade from last year’s summit declaration in Lithuania that left Ukrainian leaders fuming about a lack of commitment from the alliance as it fought to halt Russia’s invasion. Yet leaders are still pleading for more fighter jets, more air defenses, faster pilot training and getting rid of rules on striking inside Russian territory.
DefenseScoop
“Some academics, military leaders, and politicians believe that establishing a U.S. Cyber Force will address challenges faced by the DOD cyberspace operations community. We disagree,” write U.S. Cyber Command senior policy and doctrine analyst Alan Brian Long Jr. and Army Strategist Maj. Alexander Pytlar.
Breaking Defense
Defense leaders of four European powers announced this week they plan to work together to build new long-range strike weapons to shore up gaps in European defenses highlighted by the fighting in Ukraine. The defense ministers of France, Germany, Italy, and Poland signed a letter of intent July 11 for what they’re calling the European Long-Range Strike Approach (ELSA).
Defense One
The DOD’s information technology business arm still lacks cybersecurity strategies in several of its programs, according to a sweeping review of the government’s military and national security spending patterns released July 11. The programs that help support day-to-day software needs of Defense Department employees should get approved cyber strategies in place as soon as possible to best position them against cyberattacks and to reduce scheduling and performance costs, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said in its annual assessment of DOD’s IT spending.
Defense News
The 20th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff believes growing artificial intelligence and unmanned technology could lead to robotic military forces in the future. “Ten to 15 years from now, my guess is a third, maybe 25 percent to a third of the U.S. military will be robotic,” said retired Army Gen. Mark Milley.
The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies
In episode 192 of the Aerospace Advantage, Heather “Lucky” Penney explores digital engineering and its application with Air Force Research Lab AI lead Dr. Amanda Bullock and Mitchell Institute visiting senior fellow Brian Morra. The speed and complexity of modern warfare is increasing at an unprecedented pace. To maintain our competitive edge, the Department of Defense must be able to rapidly develop, field, and sustain advanced capabilities. Digital engineering represents a paradigm shift in how we approach the entire lifecycle of defense systems.
Defense News
Italy is mulling a competition to find a new tanker aircraft after suspending plans to buy six new Boeing KC-46 tankers, sources have told Defense News. The competition, which could be held this year, will likely see the Airbus A330 MRTT tanker in contention to replace the Italian Air Force’s four Boeing 767-based tanker aircraft which entered service from 2011.
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Stars and Stripes
The U.S. Air Force has pulled a pair of CV-22 Osprey tiltrotors from drills involving U.S. Marines and Japanese troops in southern Japan later this month. The helicopter-plane hybrids, which recently returned to the air after a lengthy grounding, were scheduled to participate in Exercise Resolute Dragon from July 28 to Aug. 7, a spokesman for the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force said by phone. Some Japanese government officials are required to speak to the media only on condition of anonymity.
One More Thing
Task & Purpose
Roger A. Towberman, who until last September was the service’s first Chief Master Sgt. of the Space Force, lived the Retired Dream this week when his former colleagues invited him back to work for a ceremony and he showed up rocking an absolutely magnificent Not-My-Problem-Anymore beard.
