SpaceNews
Rocket propulsion startup Ursa Major announced May 23 it won a U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory contract to support the development of two of the company’s rocket engines. The Colorado-based company said it could not disclose the value of the agreement but said it is an “eight-figure” contract, larger than a previous $3.6 million Air Force contract it received last year for development of Ursa Major’s Hadley engine for small launch vehicles.
The Associated Press
The European Union’s foreign policy chief said May 23 that the U.S. green light to allow Ukrainian pilots to get training to fly F-16s has created an inexorable momentum that will inevitably bring the fighter jets to the Ukrainian battlefield. “You know, it’s always the same thing: we discuss, at the beginning everybody is reluctant,” said Josep Borrell, giving the example of the long debate and initial opposition to the dispatch of advanced Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine.
Air & Space Forces Magazine
Virtually every part of the Department of the Air Force’s drive to modernize is being shaped by Secretary Frank Kendall’s seven Operational Imperatives—lines of effort that address the most important and urgent challenges facing the Air Force today. Now, the department and industry are working together to develop solutions for each imperative, and the results will likely change the Air Force and Space Force for the next generation. Keep up with all the latest news on each Operational Imperative.
Defense One
Eager Ukrainian soldiers are getting their guns and ammo faster than ever, thanks to the work of the U.S. government’s top bulk shipper: the U.S. military. The Europe-based unit in charge of shipping weapons to Ukraine has sped up deliveries by 30 percent compared to the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion last year, said a spokesperson for the U.S. Army’s 21st Theater Sustainment Command.
Defense News
Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak has announced his country is in talks with Sweden to purchase an undisclosed number of early-warning aircraft for the Polish Air Force. “I wanted to say, for the first time in public, that we are very advanced in what concerns acquiring early warning aircraft from Sweden,” he was quoted as saying in a statement released by his ministry. “We are carrying out detailed negotiations, and I hope that, in the short term, they will be successfully concluded.”
Breaking Defense
Senior officials leading Europe’s rival sixth generation fighter jet programs have said that they are involved in technology sharing and weapons collaborations with one another, and a senior French official even imagines a future in which a platform belonging to one program could “control” an aircraft from a separate effort. “My dream is tomorrow [the British designed] Tempest could take control of a NGWS [Next Generation Weapon System] asset,” said French Air Force Maj Gen Jean-Luc Moritz, chief of the country’s Future Combat Air System (FCAS), during a future combat air summit held by the Royal Aeronautical Society in London.
DefenseScoop
The Biden administration has named Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh as the next commander of U.S. Cyber Command, meaning that Gen. Paul Nakasone’s tenure—a transformational one—will be coming to a close. Nakasone came in to lead CYBERCOM during a significant shift in the cyber community. He took the helm as CYBERCOM was elevated to a unified combatant command spearheading a new era for the organization and military cyber. Prior to that, it was sub-unified under U.S. Strategic Command.
One More Thing
Military.com
Home Depot has begun taking over military exchange store sales of major appliances. Customers of shopmyexchange.com can now get Home Depot's selection of major appliances tax-free plus a 1 percent discount. The Army and Air Force Exchange Service, known as AAFES, announced May 18 that sales had begun, and Home Depot officials confirmed the 1 percent discount to Military.com.
