The U.S. and Russian defense chiefs spoke by telephone Oct. 21 for the first time since May, according to a Pentagon spokesperson. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu discussed “international security problems, notably the situation in Ukraine,” according to a readout posted by the Russian Ministry of Defense on Telegram.
The Space Force hopes to choose a developer next June for its nascent Digital Bloodhound program, aimed at improving detection of cyber threats to space ground systems, according to senior Space Systems Command officials. Brig. Gen. Tim Sjeba, SSC’s program executive officer for space domain awareness and combat power (SSC/SZ), said the project reflects the fact that cyber defense is a requirement across the military’s space architecture, both in orbit and on the ground.
Senior officials from the Army, the Air Force, and the Marine Corps said this year’s Project Convergence networking-and-tech experiment, going on in the western U.S. and across the Pacific, should help allay concerns that the Pentagon’s joint all-domain command and control effort lacks coordination and finesse.
Heather Campbell, a military spouse and registered dietician, and her family are among the nearly 25 percent of military families this past year who struggled to feed themselves, according to the Department of Defense. So Campbell turned to advocacy and eventually made her way to Congress, where she helped persuade several lawmakers to try to solve one of the biggest problems for service members struggling to put food on the table. The result is a bill pending in Congress that would exclude the military's Basic Allowance for Housing from income calculations used to determine eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The Polish Ministry of National Defense has signed a deal to lease a set of MQ-9A Reaper drones from U.S. manufacturer General Atomics. The move comes as the ministry is readying to purchase MQ-9B Reapers for the country’s military. “The contract has a net value of $70.6 million, and the service will be provided [to Poland] until the Polish Armed Forces acquire and put into use the MQ-9B Reaper unmanned aerial reconnaissance-strike systems,” the ministry’s Armament Agency, the entity responsible for buying weapons and military gear for the country, said in a statement.
A private Cessna aircraft flew too far into airspace protected for President Joe Biden as the commander-in-chief gave a speech in southern California. The Cessna eventually turned out of the restricted zone, but new audio reveals what it was like for Air Force F-16 fighter pilots, a Coast Guard helicopter crew, and military and civilian air traffic controllers to intercept the errant plane over Santa Ana, a city near Los Angeles.
“As the United States Air Force continues celebrating its 75th anniversary, we reflect on our shared heritage and how Airmen are using the lessons from the past to shape our future. The Air Force is transitioning from focusing for two decades on countering violent extremists to strategic competition with peer adversaries. … Fortunately, this has all been done before. In 1942, Claire Chennault’s Flying Tigers faced off against a vastly overwhelming enemy in the Pacific. Chennault’s lessons after the war remain relevant today and shine a light on the path for the conduct of agile combat employment in the future,” writes Col. Russell Cook, commander of the 23rd Wing Flying Tigers at Moody Air Force Base, Ga.
The Convair B-58 Hustler is widely remembered today as the most spectacular Cold War bomber to make it into service with the U.S. Air Force’s Strategic Air Command. But as well as being a nuclear bomber, the delta-winged Hustler was also adapted as a spy plane and even flew a mission during the Cuban Missile Crisis, using its pod-mounted radar reconnaissance system.