The New York Times
Fighting on the plain in southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region ... has raged for 10 months now in two phases: first with Ukrainian forces on the offense, and now on defense, as Russia escalates attacks on the area where Ukraine gained ground in last summer’s counteroffensive. Military analysts have described Ukraine’s strategy as “hold, build and strike”—holding the line in the country’s southeast, replenishing its units with fresh troops and hitting back with long-range drones attacks on oil refineries and military logistics targets inside Russia.
NBC News
National security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on March 20 to reaffirm U.S. support for the beleaguered country as congressional aid efforts have repeatedly floundered. During the meeting, Sullivan “stressed the urgent need for the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the national security supplemental to meet Ukraine’s critical battlefield needs,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement.
Defense One
The National Reconnaissance Office is gearing up to launch new satellites that will enable the U.S. military and intelligence community to track moving vehicles and people from space. The Air Force wants to replace its aging E-8 JSTARS aircraft, which provide targeting data, with more survivable space assets and hand off a part of the ground moving target indicator mission, called GMTI, to satellites.
Defense News
The U.S. Air Force and two main contractors on the LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program on Saturday tested the solid-rocket motor that will power the nuclear weapon’s third stage. The test, which also involved Northrop Grumman and Aerojet Rocketdyne, took place in a closed chamber at the Arnold Engineering Development Complex in Tennessee. It followed static fire tests of the first and second stages’ rocket motors in March 2023 and January 2024, respectively.
Breaking Defense
The cost of nuclear weapons is always a delicate topic in Washington, so it’s no surprise that news of cost overruns on America’s next-generation ICBM set off a wave of criticism for the program. In this new op-ed, Adam Lowther and Curtis McGiffin of the National Institute for Deterrence Studies argue that added context is needed for critics of the program.
Defense News
The U.S. Army is poised to be the largest player in the first round of Replicator projects, according to the service’s top acquisition official. Doug Bush, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, told an audience at the Ronald Reagan Institute’s National Security Innovation Base Summit in Washington that the Pentagon selected a system the service proposed for the initial tranche of Replicator—an effort to field thousands of drones and other autonomous systems over a two-year period.
Breaking Defense
Should lawmakers see fit to add it on, U.S. Southern Command could use an additional $322.6 million in its fiscal 2025 budget to pay for array of needs, ranging from millions in security assistance funding to keep US partner nations from falling prey to Chinese influence, to new equipment and facilities dedicated to the counter-narcotics mission. ... Unfunded Air Force training exercises in the Caribbean and South America, totaling $37 million, typically provide a “strategic opportunity” to build ties with partner militaries that, if lost, could also lead to China filling the vacuum, SOUTHCOM said.
DefenseScoop
The Space Force has created a mission analysis team at Fort Meade working with U.S. Cyber Command and the NSA to determine what a space component of CYBERCOM could look like, according to a senior service official. “The next tranche [of components] will include U.S. Cyber Command,” Col. Zach Warakomski, senior cyber officer within the Space Force, said March 20 at the Space IT day hosted by AFCEA’s Northern Virginia chapter.
The War Zone
While still hard for many to believe—and accept—the A-10C Warthog ground-attack jet is coming to the end of its U.S. Air Force career. In the latest development, the A-10C Demonstration Team has called time on the aircraft’s public-facing role, announcing that this season will be its last.
SpaceNews
The Pentagon’s commercial technology arm, the Defense Innovation Unit, announced March 20 it is funding three projects to explore ways to create a more robust space infrastructure that can support military operations beyond low Earth orbit. The projects were awarded to Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman and Spacebilt. “Each of the companies selected for an award showed strong research and development investments into their particular solutions for use in the commercial market,” said DIU.
Task & Purpose
The commanding officer of an Air Force medical group at Joint Base Charleston has been relieved and the unit’s senior enlisted advisor reassigned while the commander of a squadron within the group was also fired, Air Force officials confirmed.
Defense One
Even as the U.S. Army makes plans to cut up to 3,000 special operations soldiers, the demand for such forces is growing around the world, the head of U.S. Special Operations Command told lawmakers March 20. Consistently poor recruitment numbers and other factors have forced the Army to consider a variety of cuts, including special operations forces, Gen. Bryan Fenton, the commander of SOCOM, told the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations. But the timing couldn’t be worse, he said.
One More Thing
Military.com
For years, one of the most recognizable faces in military life was not that of the commander in chief, the secretary of defense or any other senior leader in the chain of command. It was the face of an Airman who was (understandably) excited to eat a hot dog. ... That man was retired Chief Master Sgt. Robin Williams, responsible for the safety of the food that flowed through AAFES installations. To be clear, the now-iconic image of Williams, who died of a heart attack on March 14, 2024, at age 60, was more than a meme. Now, the beloved chief is being (rightfully) eulogized by those military members who remember him so fondly both as a senior leader and, of course, as the “AAFES Hot Dog Guy.”
