Breaking Defense
The U.S. Air Force recently awarded contracts to five vendors for the autonomy software that will control future drone wingmen, but is keeping details under wraps due to the sensitivity of the technology, service officials said July 29. The winners of the first Collaborative Combat Aircraft autonomy contracts are classified but represent a mix of both traditional and nontraditional defense companies, Air Force officials told reporters during a roundtable at its Lifecycle Industry Days conference.
Subscription Required
Aviation Week
The U.S. Air Force’s engine office says it is open to all options—new development, off the shelf, or a combination of the two—to power a future air refueling aircraft and a potential re-engining of the C-17 as requirements are refined.
DefenseScoop
As U.S. military personnel hustle to deploy heaps of autonomous drone systems across multiple domains by August 2025 to counter China—via Replicator—the Pentagon’s top watchdog is initiating a new evaluation to comprehensively assess that high-stakes initiative. The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General issued a memorandum July 29 to multiple military and civilian components solidifying its official plans for the new review.
Subscription Required
The Washington Post
William L. Calley Jr., a junior Army officer who became the only person convicted in connection with the My Lai Massacre of 1968, when U.S. soldiers slaughtered hundreds of unarmed South Vietnamese men, women, and children in one of the darkest chapters in American military history, died April 28 at a hospice center in Gainesville, Fla.
Subscription Required
Inside Defense
The U.S. military has committed to more than $45 billion in offensive hypersonic strike capabilities, excluding likely procurement for cruise-missile variants of new ultrafast maneuvering weapons, according to a Congressional audit of the new technology portfolio that provides a first picture of total planned acquisition costs.
War On The Rocks
Amidst escalating global tensions and growing challenges in the civilian aviation sector, an aircraft maintenance shortage has emerged nationally, posing a significant threat to Air Force operational readiness.
Subscription Required
The Washington Post
Iran is working to stoke societal discord in the United States and undermine Donald Trump’s bid to regain the White House—as it tried to do four years ago, U.S. intelligence officials signaled July 29 in a new assessment of the disinformation landscape ahead of November’s election.
SpaceNews
United Launch Alliance (ULA) is set to launch its final Atlas 5 rocket for the U.S. military on July 30. The classified payload, designated USSF-51, is scheduled to lift off at 6:45 a.m. Eastern from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, bound for geostationary Earth orbit. This mission will be ULA’s 100th national security launch and the Atlas 5’s 53rd.
Task & Purpose
Donald Trump’s Vice Presidential pick, J.D. Vance, is the first military veteran on a presidential ticket since John McCain in 2008. But he could soon be joined by one of four veterans that Kamala Harris’ campaign is reviewing for her vice presidential spot.
One More Thing
USA Today
Kayla Killin of Del Rio, Tex. has always been close to her little brother, Quico. So, when she graduated from Basic Military Training at Lackland Air Force Base, Tex., he was the natural choice to tap her out.
