More than a month after Kyiv launched its incursion into Kursk—sweeping across nearly 500 square miles and capturing around 100 Russian towns and villages in a few short weeks—Russian resistance is stiffening, Ukrainian soldiers interviewed near the border with Russia said as they moved to and from the front last weekend.
Four leaders of the Islamic State were killed by U.S. and Iraqi security forces in a combined raid carried out in western Iraq last month, including the head of the extremist group’s operations in the country, U.S. military officials announced Sept. 13.
Schneider Electric completed an $11.2 million task order at Moody Air Force Base, Ga., in 2022 and just two years later, the project is already paying for itself. The upgrades are saving an estimated $700,000 in utility and operational costs per year while improving base-wide energy resiliency and efficiency. Over the 23-year life of the contract, it will save a projected $21 million.
Technically, fall doesn’t begin until Sept. 22. But for those in the Air and Space Force community, the changing of the seasons gets officially underway on Sept. 16, when Airmen and Guardians gather at National Harbor, Md., for the annual Air and Space Forces Association conference.
Nearly $6 billion in U.S. funding for aid to Ukraine will expire at the end of the month unless Congress acts to extend the Pentagon’s authority to send weapons from its stockpile to Kyiv, according to U.S. officials. U.S. officials said the Biden administration has asked Congress to include the funding authority in any continuing resolution lawmakers may manage to pass before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30 in order to fund the federal government and prevent a shutdown.
The U.S. Air Force brought together more than 30 MQ-9 Reaper drone squadrons for the latest iteration of the Reaper Smoke competition, scenarios in which included simulated missions over the highly strategic and tumultuous South China Sea.
The U.S. Air Force’s next-generation tanker was once envisioned as a stealthy, penetrating refueling platform. But that idea is changing, experts and industry sources say, amid competing budget priorities and evolving concepts of how the service will achieve air dominance in the future.
The U.S. State Department approved a possible $4.1 billion sale for up to nine KC-46A Pegasus tankers for Japan—a buy that would more than double Tokyo’s currently planned Pegasus fleet—as well as a potential sale of 32 F-35A stealth fighters for Romania at a price of $7.2 billion, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced Sept. 13.
Since transitioning most of its 5G research and development projects to the Chief Information Office last year, the Pentagon’s Future Generation Wireless Technology Office has shifted its focus to preparing the Defense Department for the next wave of network innovation.
In the high-stakes arena of military space technology, the U.S. Space Force’s Space Development Agency is attempting to rewrite the rulebook with a mesh network of interconnected satellites in low-Earth orbit capable of swiftly relaying critical data, including the detection of hypersonic missile threats. But as the project enters its fourth year, SDA’s ambition is colliding with earthbound realities, exposing the challenges of rapid innovation in the aerospace sector.
Lockheed Martin says timing issues around the next lot of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter production could affect sales and cashflow and may require some reprogramming of funding to avoid disruptions.
The massive strike by tens of thousands of Boeing machinists in Washington state will affect the company’s work on the KC-46 Pegasus refueling tanker, the company’s chief financial officer Brian West said Sept. 13. West’s comments to the Morgan Stanley Laguna Conference came hours after more than 30,000 union members voted overwhelmingly to reject a contract and go on strike.
Each season offers a new priority for the U.S. Air Force Academy Beekeeping Club in their care of a hive of 60,000 Italian honeybees in the natural resources office by Falcon Stadium. Soon, they will harvest the hive’s honey. When the weather begins to turn colder, the priority becomes disease control. The work is all worth it in the spring when the cadets see the hive come back to life.
