China said its military staged exercises April 15 to reinforce its threat to use force to bring Taiwan under its control, as U.S. lawmakers visiting Taiwan made a pointed and public declaration of their support for the self-governing island democracy while issuing a warning to China. The six lawmakers met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and were also scheduled to meet with the island’s defense minister.
Three candidates were interviewed for the position of superintendent of schools of Hamblen County, Tenn. When the selection process took place, the school district implemented an emergency provision vote which ultimately led to the hiring of Gen. Arnold W. Bunch Jr. to lead the school district as the next school superintendent. The emergency provision suspended a policy that required candidates for the position to possess licensure, education, and experience in the field of school administration.
Just like the fighter pilots they supported, many troops who fueled, armed, and maintained warplanes have suffered from cancer or seen their former colleagues diagnosed with the disease. There’s no data yet on how many ground crew members have gotten sick, but a new bill introduced April 14 would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to identify the cancer incidence in the entire aviation community, as well as what toxins they faced, and whether there could be a link to their illnesses.
The State Department has cleared the sale of 12 AH-1Z Cobra attack helicopters to Nigeria worth nearly $1 billion, apparently after U.S. lawmakers lifted objections over human rights concerns. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced the sale of the helicopters and related defense systems to the Nigerian military. The package includes $25 million for human rights-related training.
The U.S. and India have agreed to engage in new talks about artificial intelligence and its use in matters of national security, an outgrowth of the nations’ deepening relationship at a time of sharpened Indo-Pacific focus. News of the inaugural Defense Artificial Intelligence Dialogue came after Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with their Indian counterparts, Minister of Defense Rajnath Singh and Minister of External Affairs Dr. S. Jaishankar.
The Air Force’s future fighter is being built with its flight control software completely separated from the software governing its mission systems, a unique feature that the service’s top general said will allow the aircraft to be refreshed with new technologies more quickly. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. said the approach for the so-called Next Generation Air Dominance program (NGAD) is one that he believes the service has not taken in any of its previous fighters.
Unlike the other military services, the Space Force faces a key conundrum in both testing new kit and training Guardians to operate current space systems: the inability to stake out an area of outer space for a live testing range. “This is maybe one of the biggest technical challenges that we’re working through right now,” said Maj. Gen. Shawn N. Bratton, the head of Space Training and Readiness Command.
The Air Force is looking at reorganizing its software factories, one of the leaders in the office that oversees them said. Among the military services, the Air Force has been particularly keen on software factories, which are tasked with quickly and securely developing and delivering new software for the Department of Defense.
Air University enshrined its first senior enlisted leader graduates, along with officer alumni, into the Chief of Staff and Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force International Honor Roll during a ceremony at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala. For the enlisted inductees, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass held an additional ceremony later in the day to dedicate the International Honor Roll wall in the Air Force Senior Noncommissioned Officer Academy on Maxwell’s Gunter Annex, memorializing their accomplishments.
Getting pinned to the ground by a Kodiak bear is not how most people would like to spend a vacation, but that’s exactly where one Airman found himself while on a hunting trip in Alaska last October. If not for his preparation, mindfulness, and teamwork, all skills he attributed to his military training, Senior Airman Brady Penn and his father Steve may not have made it back alive.