The Defense Department has many predicaments to untangle when it comes to adopting emerging, and existing, technologies from workforce to acquisition. But when it comes to artificial intelligence, cultural and budget issues are the largest obstacles to widespread implementation, officials say.
The U.S. is sending Ukraine advanced rocket-launcher systems, Mi-17 helicopters, and 1,000 Javelin missiles as part of the Biden administration’s latest effort to arm the Ukrainian soldiers fighting off Russia’s invasion, the Pentagon said June 1.
After POLITICO broke the news that the Pentagon seized a foreign reporter’s phone during official travel last week, we all smelled a backstory—so we dug deeper. Turns out, it was in part the security breach at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland last year—in which an unarmed intruder made his way aboard an aircraft reserved for top government officials—that prompted the service to place new limits on the use of personal electronic devices near classified information, Air Force officials said.
Despite growing more reliable, military operators fret that Defense Department satellite communications capabilities are not keeping pace with either growing needs or adversary challenges, according to a new study. The vast majority of respondents (eight out of 10) from across the services said that improving U.S. military SATCOM should be a high priority, and a large majority (some 77 percent) pointed to the fact that advanced capabilities would be key to joint all-domain command and control.
How often are service members passing up their meal entitlement and choosing to pay out of their own pockets and eat elsewhere, rather than eat at their dining facility? For the most part, defense and service officials don’t know. Which means they don’t have enough information to know how effective they are at their primary mission: feeding the troops, according to a report by government auditors.
The lion's share of the 100 billion-euro special fund Germany is allocating to rebuilding its military after Russia's invasion of Ukraine will go to the air force, according to a document seen by Reuters. The document envisages 40.9 billion euros being spent on developments and purchases including of new Eurofighter and F35 jets and a successor to the Tornado warplane, as well as the building of a space-based early warning system.
China has made the second largest incursion into Taiwan’s air defense zone this year with Taipei reporting 30 jets entering the area, including more than 20 fighters. Taiwan’s defense ministry said late on Monday it had scrambled its own aircraft and deployed air defense missile systems to monitor the latest Chinese activity. In recent years, Beijing has begun sending large sorties into Taiwan’s defense zone to signal dissatisfaction, and to keep Taipei’s aging fighter fleet regularly stressed.
“The invasion Vladimir Putin thought would last days is now in its fourth month. The Ukrainian people surprised Russia and inspired the world with their sacrifice, grit, and battlefield success. The free world and many other nations, led by the United States, rallied to Ukraine’s side with unprecedented military, humanitarian and financial support. As the war goes on, I want to be clear about the aims of the United States in these efforts,” writes President Joe Biden.
A motorcycle crash in Idaho last month may have turned fatal if not for the arrival of highly-trained special operations airmen. The airmen were driving in a convoy on a stretch of the I-84 highway in western Idaho where the speed limit is 80 miles per hour on May 15 when a motorcycle accident happened right in front of them. The motorcycle with two riders was struck from behind, severely injuring both riders, according to an Air Force press release. But if there was a silver lining, it was the fact that several members of the 125th Special Tactics Squadron, Oregon Air National Guard, were nearby.