The Air Force plans to roll out online promotion testing for mid-level enlisted airmen starting in January 2024, the Air Force’s personnel chief said Sept. 8. The long-awaited change is a leap into the digital age for Weighted Airman Promotion System, or WAPS, exams, which judge whether staff sergeants and technical sergeants are ready to advance to the next rank.
China’s military is conducting a sophisticated exploitation campaign designed to “fill gaps” in its capabilities by targeting current and former U.S. service members and harvesting specialized knowledge they’ve gained, a top general warned in a message obtained by The Washington Post. The document was distributed to Air Force personnel on Sept. 8. It marks the Pentagon’s most direct attempt yet to call out and counter what U.S. officials characterized as an aggressive ploy by Beijing to leverage international firms that hire Americans to teach advanced military skills and tactics.
Sept. 11 will mark the start of the annual Air and Space Forces Association conference in National Harbor, Md. In this video, Breaking Defense’s Air reporter Michael Marrow and Editor-in-Chief Aaron Mehta discuss a few key topics that will likely come up during the show.
The Space Force in August stood up its first squadron assigned to target adversaries’ space assets and their supporting ground systems and communication links. And while the unit won’t directly deploy capabilities that could jam, hack, or physically damage those systems, it will play a critical role in giving combatant commanders information on possible ways to do so.
Paul Ferraro, President of Air Power at Raytheon, an RTX business, sat down with Air & Space Forces Magazine's Editor in Chief, Tobias Naegele, to discuss why RTX combined its Missiles & Defense Unit and its Intelligence & Space Unit into a single business entity called “Raytheon”—and what the new approach means for the forces.
Even as the Air Force edges toward a competition to build its long-contemplated robot wingmen, several fundamental questions linger about the autonomous aircraft that will fly into battle alongside manned fighter jets. The questions are less technological than philosophical, industry executives say. Just how will these “collaborative combat aircraft,” or CCAs, work with manned fighters? How much autonomy should they have? How will their AI be tested?
In Episode 145 of the Aerospace Advantage podcast, Doug Birkey chats with the commander of the 350th Spectrum Warfare Wing, Col. Joshua Koslov, to discuss the current state of this mission area, explain challenges and opportunities, define key concepts, and provide insights on future vectors. Spectrum warfare is a crucial element of overall warfighting effectiveness. It comes down to securing an information advantage, which facilitates more effective decision-making at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels. Spectrum warfare lies at the heart of concepts like JADC2 and ABMS—empowering data gathering, exchange, and collaboration between teams in the battlespace.
The U.S. Air Force’s plan to field a next-generation refueling tanker by the mid-2030s could be in jeopardy if the service has to operate under lengthy continuing resolutions, a top service official said Sept. 5. Andrew Hunter, the assistant secretary for acquisition, technology, and logistics, said in an interview with Defense News at the Pentagon that a lengthy continuing resolution in fiscal 2024, and possibly the following year, could hinder how quickly the service begins work on the next-generation aerial refueling system, or NGAS, program, thus leading to problems down the road.
U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall talks with CNN's Jim Acosta about Sen. Tommy Tuberville's (R-Ala.) continued blockade on hundreds of military promotions over the Pentagon's abortion policies.
A National Reconnaissance Office mission flew to geostationary Earth orbit Sept. 10 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. The rocket lifted off at 8:47 a.m. Eastern from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The launch had been originally scheduled for August 29 but was delayed due to Hurricane Idalia. A second attempt on Sept. 9 was scrubbed due to a technical issue found during a pre-launch check. The NROL-107 mission, also known as SilentBarker, carried multiple sensor payloads for surveillance of objects in geostationary orbit.
he Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center is contracting with MITRE to test Airmen and Guardian decision making in a contested environment through video gaming. Registration opened Sept. 6 for military members to participate in eSports tournament GameX: Mission Generation Under Attack at locations in Sumter, S.C.; McLean, Va.; and San Antonio.