After weeks of deadly Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon and punishing combat between Israeli forces and the Hezbollah militant group, the contours of a potential cease-fire agreement appear to be taking shape, according to several regional and U.S. officials briefed on the ongoing diplomacy.
In this Aerospace Advantage episode, Heather “Lucky” Penney chats about how we gain the combination of advanced capabilities and necessary mass for tomorrow’s munition’s inventory with Jeff Peters and Dr. Kathy Bihari of BAE, plus the Mitchell Institute’s JV Venable.
Former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Nov. 24 that he does not expect the Russia-Ukraine war to end quickly when President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
The U.S. leads the world in developing artificial intelligence technology, surpassing China in research and other important measures of AI innovation, according to a newly released Stanford University index.
Fijian and U.S. officials cemented one defense agreement and opened talks on another—but first, there was roast pig and rugby in the rain. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived on this South Pacific island on Nov. 22, the final stop on a nine-day journey that has taken him to Australia, the Philippines, and Laos.
The Space Force expects to award as many as 20 contracts over the next two years for private companies to join its Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve, which will create a mechanism for the military to better leverage commercial capabilities both in peacetime and during a conflict.
The growing ties between China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea have been the source of Western leaders’ ire for several years, but seem to be reaching a new, critical level, where transfer of the highest level of military technologies between the countries, including key Russian submarine tech, may become routine.
Special operations forces deploy around the world in high-risk missions. And the troops that fall under Special Operations Command experience a high rate of serious and sometimes deadly accidents outside of combat, often in training. A lack of oversight and a culture of complacency are the major contributors to these mishaps, the Government Accountability Office wrote in a new report.
A human controller flying in an L-39 Albatros jet ordered a pair of L-29 Delfin jets with artificial intelligence (AI) driven flight technology acting as surrogates for advanced drones to engage simulated enemy fighters in a series of recent flight tests. Lockheed Martin’s famed Skunk Works advanced projects division led the experiment, which reflects growing discussions about how exactly crewed platforms will manage their uncrewed companions in the future.
“Constrained for funds and facing rapidly improving potential adversaries, the U.S. Air Force (USAF) is grappling with how to ensure control of the air in the 2030s. One proposal — leaning heavily on standoff forces to provide “affordable” mass without traditional air superiority — has a problem: even with long-range kill chains, exquisite smart weapons, and low-cost swarms, no one has specifically described how such novel ideas would lead to victory,” write Lt. Col. Shane “Axl” Praiswater, a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University Strategic Thinkers Program and a B-21 Initial Cadre pilot, and Maj. Matthew “Maddog” Guertin, an F-22 Instructor Pilot and Air Force Fellow in Washington, D.C.
As several of the U.S. military services continue to develop and test hypersonic missiles, the Defense Department at large is concurrently working to understand how the weapons will fit into joint warfighting operations once they are fielded.
The U.S. Space Force is bracing for delays in launching key national security payloads aboard United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Vulcan rocket, Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, head of the Space Force’s Space Systems Command, said Nov. 21 during a meeting with reporters. The Space Force is now preparing for a likely 2025 Vulcan national security launch debut instead of the originally planned 2024 launches.
As software has become essential to how the U.S. fights and wins wars, how the Department of Defense goes about modernizing and updating that software has become crucial too. Learn more about how faster software modernization is tying the military together, breaking through bureaucracy along the way.
The U.S. Air Force says a number of small drones were detected last week around three bases in eastern England that are used by American forces. The drones were spotted between Nov. 20-22 near RAF Lakenheath, RAF Mildenhall, and RAF Feltwell. They were actively monitored after they were seen in the vicinity of and over the three bases, U.S. Air Forces Europe said in a statement.
At the center of an escalating arms race, Ukraine wants to join the ranks of a select group of countries that can produce ballistic missiles. This week, Kyiv struck Russia for the first time with long-range missiles supplied by the West, using U.S.-made ATACMS and British Storm Shadow missiles in two successive strikes. Russia responded by launching an intermediate-range ballistic missile.
Military officials have refused to say whether they’re still working with a company responsible for making the gear that failed on an Air Force V-22 Osprey aircraft and led to the deaths of eight airmen last year, despite long-running questions over the quality of the part and allegations of the manufacturer using lower-quality steel.
Military service members were stronger financially at the end of 2023 than they were pre-pandemic even as inflationary pressures impacted household finances, according to the first-ever Military Financial Wellbeing Index released by USAA Federal Savings Bank, the leading financial services provider for the military community and their families.
