CNN
When President Joe Biden sat down with Sweden’s prime minister on July 5—just a week before the annual NATO summit—he hoped to send a message to allies and adversaries alike. To Turkey and Hungary–two NATO allies who have yet to green-light Sweden’s accession to NATO–Biden sought to demonstrate the unwavering nature of the U.S. commitment to Sweden joining the alliance, administration officials said. To adversaries like Russia, administration officials hoped to send another strong signal of support for strengthening the military partnership with Sweden, regardless of its status as a NATO member.
Reuters
Canada is expected to boost military spending after a government review in July, but the increase is unlikely to comfort allies facing new threats and it could further undermine the country's international military credibility, policy analysts said.
The War Zone
The U.S. Air Force has stressed that artificial intelligence "is here to stay" and will be central to revolutionary advances in uncrewed aircraft. These comments and details about the service's ongoing work in these areas, including testing involving the unique X-62A experimental testbed, a heavily modified F-16 Viper fighter, and Kratos XQ-58 Valkyrie drones, come in a newly released official video. This is all feeding into the service's Collaborative Combat Aircraft drone program, which is part of its much larger and multi-faceted Next Generation Air Dominance modernization initiative.
Air & Space Forces Magazine
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has defined seven Operational Imperatives for the Department of the Air Force to work on, warning that “if we don't get them right, we will have unacceptable operational risk.” From a resilient space order of battle to the development of next-generation tactical air dominance and global strike platforms, these imperatives will define the Air Force for decades to come—Dive deeper into each one with our new “Operational Imperatives” pages highlighting all the latest news and developments on these critical efforts.
Defense News
Britain’s Ministry of Defense has funded the final step in the development of an active electronically scanned array radar destined for the Royal Air Force’s Typhoon combat jets. The new radar is considered the biggest single element of upgrades aimed at keeping Typhoon current until at least 2040. As such, the technology is a stepping stone towards new capabilities for the envisioned sixth-generation Global Combat Air Program being negotiated by Britain, Italy, and Japan.
War on the Rocks
This episode comes to you from Ramstein Air Base, Germany, where Ryan Evans spoke with Gen. James Hecker of the U.S. Air Force and Air Marshall Johnny Stringer of the Royal Air Force about what we can learn from airpower and spacepower almost a year and a half into the war in Ukraine.
Military Times
After years of catching grief for exquisite weapons acquisition programs with creeping requirements leading to lengthy delays and budget overruns, the Pentagon now finds itself with a different sort of headache: how to stop weapons and systems that are dirt cheap. The growing problem of inexpensive unmanned systems employing autonomy and artificial intelligence has been a longtime subject of military study and discussion.
Bloomberg
America’s armed services are failing to meet their recruiting goals, with the Army in particular suffering the worst shortfalls in five decades. There are many reasons behind this, but one is very surprising: veterans themselves. Recent reporting and anecdotal evidence indicate the likelihood that children of service members will sign up, or be urged to do so by their families, is at a nadir. Given that 80% of new recruits have a relative who served in uniform, there is no understating the crisis.
Associated Press
The satellite North Korea failed to put into orbit wasn’t advanced enough to conduct military reconnaissance from space as it claimed, South Korea’s military said July 5 after retrieving and studying the wreckage. North Korea had tried to launch its first spy satellite in late May, but the long-range rocket carrying it plunged into the waters off the Korean Peninsula’s west coast soon after liftoff.
One More Thing
BBC
The rusting remains of eight British Hurricane fighter planes dating back to World War Two have been found buried in a forest in Ukraine. The aircraft were sent to the Soviet Union by Britain after Nazi Germany invaded the country in 1941. Aviation experts say this is the first time the remains of so many Hurricanes have been found in Ukraine. "It is very rare to find this aircraft in Ukraine," says Oleks Shtan, a former airline pilot who is leading the excavation. "It's very important for our aviation history because no Lend-Lease aircraft have been found here before."
