Korea Joong Ang Daily
In an apparent warning to North Korea and China, the United States has deployed an unspecified number of F-35A stealth fighter jets to Okinawa, Japan, its military said. The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the F-35A jets from the 354th Fighter Wing in Alaska had been moved to Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, to take part in “integrated air operations.” Their arrival follows the U.S. military’s deployment of four B-52 subsonic bomber jets to Guam earlier in the month to partake in training operations with allies and regional partners.
Task & Purpose
As Russian missiles burned across the horizon and military aircraft prowled the skies above Kyiv, digital whispers of a lone airborne hero among the Ukrainian resistance began to emerge online. His name and his history are shrouded in mystery, but his exploits are already the stuff of modern military lore: that, with six air-to-air kills, the heroic pilot of a Ukrainian MiG-29 became the first air combat ace over European soil since World War II. They call him ‘the Ghost of Kyiv’—and despite thousands of digital prayers to the contrary, he is, in all likelihood, a work of fiction.
Politico
To look ahead to where the Russia-Ukraine conflict is headed and what might be driving an increasingly autocratic leader with deep historical grievances and a nuclear arsenal at his disposal, Politico Magazine reached out to a range of experts, from Russians who know Putin as their day-to-day leader, to former diplomats, and others who’ve encountered him directly, to experts outside the United States and Europe who have insights of their own. The good news is that most of them saw limits to Putin’s goals. The bad news: Those limits lie far outside the boundaries of the global order we’ve come to rely on.
The San Luis Obispo Tribune
A SpaceX rocket blasted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., shooting a fiery path across Central Coast skies Feb. 25. The Falcon 9 rocket carried 50 satellites into orbit for SpaceX’s Starlink internet constellation.
Flying Magazine
The Ukrainian Air Force was created in March 1992 out of aircraft that were left behind when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 and pulled out of Poltava Air Base in central Ukraine. The aircraft ranged from Soviet-built fighters such as the MiG-21, 25s, and 27s, Sukhoi Su-15, 17 interceptors, and Tupolev Tu-160 bombers.
Defense One
The Russian government took steps Feb. 25 to further limit what its citizens can see in media and on the internet, “slowing” access to Facebook and ordering state and independent outlets to use only governmental sources in their reporting on Ukraine. Russia will “partially restrict access in the form of slowing down traffic” to the social-media platform, Russia’s telecommunications agency said in response to Facebook’s own “restricting” of four state-owned media sites: the Zvezda TV channel, the RIA Novosti news agency, and the Lenta.ru and Gazeta.ru Internet sites.
Military Times
A pilot program that aims to give military families another option for obtaining scarce child care is slowly getting off the ground. The Defense Department’s In-Home Child Care Fee Assistance Pilot, available in five regions of the country since last summer, provides monetary assistance to help military families pay for a child care provider in their own home. But to date, just five families are actively participating in it.
Defense News
The U.S. Department of Defense wants to create a network of regional hubs to mature microelectronics technology and manufacturing processes and strengthen the domestic industrial base. In a new request for information, the department asks companies, academia, government labs, and domestic semiconductor manufacturers for input on its Microelectronic Commons concept, which originated with a cross-functional team led by Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu.
Defense News
Unmanned ground and aerial systems developed by Emirati companies dominated the trade show floor at the country’s unmanned systems expo UMEX, which took place Feb. 21-23, but foreign businesses also pitched their wares.
SpaceNews
If Russia or any other actor were to intentionally interfere with U.S. satellites, it would be difficult to identify the aggressor, said the top commander of U.S. military space operations. “The challenge in the space domain is determining intent,” said Gen. James H. Dickinson, commander of U.S. Space Command. Dickinson warned that the U.S. military and the Intelligence Community need better tools to identify the source of nefarious activity in orbit. A key focus of U.S. Space Command is to protect satellite systems that provide communications, missile warning, and GPS navigation.
Breaking Defense
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall is pushing a “large pivot” in the fiscal 2024 budget to prepare for the “China fight,” including for the Space Force, said Lt. Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, head of the Space Force’s acquisition command. “We’ve heard the Secretary say, ‘China, China, China, China.’ He’s going to continue to say, ‘China, China, China, China,’” said Guetlein, who heads Space Systems Command. And China is the focus behind Kendall’s seven “operational imperatives” outlined in January, the first of which is a “resilient space order of battle,” Guetlein said.
One More Thing
Military Times
Oscar-winning actor and director Sean Penn is in Ukraine filming a documentary about the ongoing Russian attack that began Feb. 23. The Office of the Ukrainian President wrote in a Facebook post Feb. 24 that Penn attended press briefings, met with Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, and spoke to journalists and military personnel about the Russian invasion.
