Defense News
The United States on July 12 renewed its call on China to stop its aggressive actions in the South China Sea, saying a broader web of security alliances has emerged to preserve the rule of law in the disputed waters. Washington’s top diplomat in Manila was joined by counterparts from key Western and Asian allies, including Japan and Australia, in a Manila forum to express alarm over increasing hostilities in the contested waters, particularly between China and the Philippines.
DefenseScoop
The Department of the Air Force released a presolicitation July 16 as it looks for new target-tracking capabilities fueled by AI and other cutting-edge technologies. The Air Force plans to spend approximately $99 million on the multiyear innovation effort and multiple awards are anticipated, according to the announcement.
Schneider Electric
Yokota Air Base’s location in Japan gives the U.S. Air Force a strategic operational advantage of rapid response within the Indo-Pacific region—but it’s also a location fraught with weather events that threaten the installation’s power grid. With tsunamis, typhoons, and earthquakes comes the risk of losing primary power, leaving critical infrastructures out of operation and in the dark. To manage this risk at Yokota Air Base, the Air Force turned to Schneider Electric, the global leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, to execute one of the largest resilience-focused performance contracts ever undertaken by the Department of Defense.
Military.com
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on July 15 selected Ohio Sen. JD Vance—a Marine veteran, author, and once-critic of the former president—as his running mate for the 2024 election. Vance, 39, is the first post-9/11 veteran to find a spot on a major party ticket and, if elected, would likely be the first Marine veteran to serve as the second-in-command, a Military.com analysis of vice presidential biographies found. ... Of the 49 vice presidents in U.S. history, less than half had some sort of military experience. Examples included service in militias, the National Guard, the U.S. Navy and Army.
Military.com
A House oversight committee alleges it has not received key investigative documents from the Defense Department about V-22 Osprey crashes and is threatening to take action if it doesn’t receive the information by later this month. The Pentagon has not provided a comprehensive list and all safety investigation reports of every class-A Osprey mishap from 1991 to the present, according to the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.
Defense One
The Defense Department's task force to explore the use of generative artificial intelligence will help officials craft guidelines and identify infrastructure needs for emerging capabilities, according to the head of the Pentagon’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, or CDAO.
The War Zone
The U.S. Navy’s Next Generation Fighter program could see its budget, which was already set to be truncated, slashed much further in the next fiscal year. Members of the Senate are proposing to give the service nearly 90 percent less funding than it asked for to support continued work on what is more commonly referred to as F/A-XX. This comes amid growing uncertainty about the future of a similar U.S. Air Force program to develop a new crewed sixth-generation stealth combat jet as part of that service’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) modernization initiative.
Breaking Defense
The Defense Department’s space policy shop is facing a bit of a leadership gap—with two more senior officials stepping down following the first-ever assistant secretary for space policy John Plumb, who stepped down in May. Vipin Narang, who was tapped as acting assistant secretary following Plumb’s departure, is due to exit within a few months, Breaking Defense has learned. He will return to his former position as MIT’s “Frank Stanton Professor of Nuclear Security and Political Science,” from where he has been on “service leave,” in time for the September start of the new school year.
Subscription Required
Aviation Week
A new data translation system meant to provide U.S. military space operators with a clearer picture of the heavens has entered operational trials, the Space Force says. The announcement was made July 15.
The Wall Street Journal
Elon Musk is fed up with California. The billionaire entrepreneur said July 16 he is moving the headquarters of two of his companies, X Corp. and SpaceX, to Texas from California. The moves, announced days after he endorsed Donald Trump for president, further illustrate how Musk has increasingly aligned himself with conservative stances on social issues.
Dude Perfect
Our BIGGEST stunt ever!? With the help of the U.S. Air Force we drop 1,000 basketballs from a C-17 to see if we can make one! Huge thanks to all the men and women of the Air Force that helped make this happen.
