Four U.S. Marines were killed in an MV-22 Osprey crash in Norway on March 17, according to Norwegian officials. The Marines, assigned to the 2nd Marine Air Wing, were in Norway as part of the biannual Cold Response exercise. The Marines were flying the vehicle toward Norwegian Air Force Base Bodø, Norway, north of the Arctic Circle, when it initially was reported missing around 6:30 p.m. Central European Time.
On March 18, Russian missiles struck the Lviv State Aircraft Repair Plant in the western city of the same name, which lies just over 40 miles from the Polish border. This facility, among other things, is responsible for performing major maintenance on the country's MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter jets. This was the first strike on a target within Lviv, which is also a major transshipment point for foreign aid of various kinds entering Ukraine, since the beginning of the conflict.
Three current and former members of the Tennessee National Guard are safe and accounted for, despite a Russian newspaper’s false report that the men were killed while fighting in Ukraine. All three men named in a Russian news report, two of whom are still serving in the Tennessee National Guard, are alive and well—and no U.S. military personnel are currently on orders in Ukraine, National Guard Bureau spokesperson Wayne Hall said in a phone interview March 17.
President Joe Biden’s fiscal 2023 budget will hit the streets March 28, and it’s looking to be a record-breaking year for defense spending. The fiscal 2023 defense budget is expected to be largest ever requested, with a topline budget for the Defense Department sitting somewhere between $770 billion and $780 billion. Meanwhile, national security spending—which includes the Defense Department, defense-related spending from the Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Energy funds associated with nuclear weapons—could come in at $800 billion to $810 billion.
Military medical officials have formed a joint working group to address the immediate health issues of service members and families affected by the fuel-tainted water in Hawaii, but little is known about what the long-term health effects could be. It’s also not clear how the newly established Defense Department incident registry will track families into the future. All residents and assigned personnel on the affected water system are being automatically enrolled in the registry.
In episode 68 of the Aerospace Advantage podcast, host John “Slick” Baum engages with Steve Trimble of Aviation Week and Space Technology and Heather Penney of the Mitchell Institute to discuss a fight over how we manage spectrum—the ecosystem where we communicate electronically. Exchanging information allows us to better understand the battle space, team with various actors, seek zones to best net mission results, and avoid threats. If you don’t have a decision advantage, you’ll likely lose. But we’ve also had some wakeup calls to be careful how we manage these capabilities, most recently with the U.S. military losing access to one of its most important networks—Link 16.
After waiting for two years, Space Force Guardians received official word from military leadership this week that the newest service branch will scrap the annual physical fitness test and will roll out a new plan that relies on wearable fitness trackers by 2023. But the reliance on personal fitness trackers has raised concerns among military security experts, especially after recent incidents in which fitness tracker data shared on social media revealed the locations of military bases and patrol routes.
International talks aimed at preventing an arms race in space are expected to continue this year, a senior State Department official said March 17. However, bilateral U.S.-Russia space talks that had begun before the invasion of Ukraine are off the table for now. Eric Desautels, acting deputy assistant secretary of state for emerging security challenges and defense policy, said an “open ended working group” established by the U.N. General Assembly in December to address space security issues will hold its first session May 9-13 at the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland.
The United Kingdom has received a green light to purchase a Ballistic Missile Defense Radar as well as an associated command and control system from the United States, a sale potentially worth up to $700 million. “The proposed sale will improve U.K.’s ability to meet current and future ballistic missile threats to the U.K. and NATO by improving the effectiveness of NATO BMD systems,” according to a State Department statement.
The European Space Agency has suspended its joint program with Russia to send a rover to Mars, citing the “impossibility” of working with the government that launched a war on Ukraine. On March 17, ESA and Russia’s Roscosmos space agency both announced measures to end their collaboration, showing how the geopolitical split between Russia and the West is scuttling peaceful cooperation in space, too.
Peter J. Beshar was sworn in as the general counsel of the Department of the Air Force during a Pentagon ceremony March 18 following his confirmation to the role by the Senate on March 10. In his newest capacity, Beshar is the Department of the Air Force’s chief ethics official and legal officer, providing oversight, guidance, and direction to more than 2,600 Air Force military and civilian lawyers worldwide.
“The U.S. Space Force was widely lampooned for its logo, which looks like a knockoff of the emblem from the 1960s-era 'Star Trek' television series. Stifle that laughter. Reports say the Space Force may be boldly going where no person has gone before: the militarization of space. That may sound scary, but it is necessary for national security,” writes Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
Countless movies feature scenes involving aircraft. These can be filmed in various locations, from real aircraft and airports to sets. Air Hollywood in California is one of the largest dedicated aviation studios. It offers many aircraft and airport props and sets for filming and has been a part of many shows and movies over the last 20 years or more.