Cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas to end the war in Gaza and free the remaining hostages are quietly advancing behind the scenes, mediators and officials say, after the Israel-Hezbollah truce in Lebanon and pressure from President-elect Donald J. Trump.
Can a terrorist group change its ways? That’s the question top national security officials are pondering as they take stock of the Islamist insurgent group that led the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.
The Pentagon is temporarily pausing flights again of its fleet of V-22 Ospreys after weakened metal components possibly played a role in another near crash, the latest setback for an embattled aircraft whose safety problems have grown. ... The latest near crash, at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico on Nov. 20, had similarities to a crash off the coast of Japan in November of last year that killed eight Air Force Special Operations Command service members.
“Efficiency” was the word of the weekend at the Reagan National Defense Forum. Defense-startup executives were giddy at the prospect of gaining comparative advantage through Trump administration attacks on Pentagon bureaucracy, while lawmakers cautioned that substantive changes would require their review.
A key lawmaker on the Senate Armed Services Committee is suggesting that the Air Force and Navy work hand-in-hand to develop their respective sixth-generation fighter jets, rather than take diverging paths. The two services have discussed how to keep their sixth-generation aircraft—the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) platform and F/A-XX, respectively—complementary, but they’re running two separate programs that feature different airframes and propulsion systems.
The U.S. Air Force’s long-awaited, much-anticipated Joint Simulation Environment (JSE)—a high-fidelity simulated battlespace system that warfighters will use to train on fifth-generation platforms—is expected to reach initial operational capability in 2025 at the Joint Integrated Test and Training Center Nellis (JITTC-N) at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., with full integration expected by 2028, experts from HII say.
Supply chain delays that have affected the Space Development Agency may be a precursor for broader industrial base challenges across the service’s satellite portfolio, according to a top Space Force official. SDA is in the process of launching a megaconstellation of missile warning and data transport satellites, but the first two phases of the effort have been delayed due to production issues with some of its suppliers.
United Launch Alliance (ULA) expects to gain Space Force certification for national security payloads within a few months, company CEO Tory Bruno told Breaking Defense in a recent interview. Speaking in California, Bruno said he expects certification “momentarily,” though he noted that “’momentarily,’ in our world, that means this month, next month, next few months.”
The final text of the conference-negotiated fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act would leave it to the head of the Pentagon to determine whether the department should create a new center of excellence focused on AI-enabled weapon systems.
China is developing a dependence on space-based space situational awareness as its space activities expand, according to a new report. China’s on-orbit presence has grown dramatically in recent years, with a boom in numbers of satellites launched, and the construction of the Tiangong space station. However, its space situational awareness (SSA) architecture heavily relies on space-based systems due to its limited global ground sensor network, according to a report from the China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI).
With 22 days left in the year, Blue Origin on Dec. 9 reiterated its plan to launch the first New Glenn orbital rocket this month, with a key static hot-fire of the booster’s reusable first stage still pending.
What will happen to highly strategic Russian air and naval bases in Syria is now very much now an open question following the downfall of long-time strongman Bashar Al Assad. Though Russia has pulled back forces, it is unclear whether there are plans to abandon the crucial facilities for good.
Massive military transport aircraft took to the skies over the weekend as the U.S. Air Force set in motion the Defense Department’s longest-running humanitarian mission for the 73rd year. The aircraft—predominantly C-130J Super Hercules from Yokota Air Base, Japan—took with them crates filled to the brim with food, camping gear, medical equipment, toys and other supplies to be dropped to remote islands as part of Operation Christmas Drop.
