The Associated Press
Ukrainian drone strikes on southern Russia killed a 9-year-old boy and set fire to a major oil terminal, officials said Dec. 14, the day after Moscow launched a massive aerial attack on its neighbor that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said was one of the heaviest bombardments of the country’s energy sector in the nearly three-year war.
Reuters
Drones were spotted flying over the U.S. air base at Ramstein in Germany in early December, a spokesperson for the U.S. Air Force said on Dec. 13. There were “no impacts to base residents, facilities, or assets,” the spokesperson said. ... A security source told Reuters that German authorities had not traced the operators of the drones, but had ruled out the possibility that the drones were operated by amateurs.
The Washington Post
Three days ago, Gov. Phil Murphy (D) attempted to soothe worries that the mysterious drones flying in New Jersey airspace posed a threat to public safety. But growing concern—and additional sightings—moved Murphy to write to President Joe Biden on Dec. 12, emphasizing the need for more federal resources. ... Federal investigators said they don’t have answers yet but added they don’t believe the drones pose a public threat.
The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies
In this episode of the Aerospace Advantage, Heather “Lucky” Penney explores space launch operations, infrastructure, and technologies with Brad Appel, the Chief Technology Officer of Ursa Major, and Mitchell Institute’s Charles Galbreath. Today, all U.S. military operations rely on space capabilities and effects delivered from the on-orbit architecture. Launch operations remain a technically challenging mission and must not be taken for granted. Factors like confidence, capacity, cadence, and cost are hugely important for future launch solutions.
The Wall Street Journal
President-elect Donald Trump didn’t get to fly on a new Air Force One during his first term. He likely won’t get to fly on a new presidential plane in his second term, either. The long-delayed project has fallen so far behind schedule that Boeing has told the Air Force that it expects to deliver the new jets after Trump leaves the White House, according to people familiar with the matter. That means the airplanes wouldn’t be ready until 2029 or later.
Defense News
The United Launch Alliance, a longtime government spacelift provider, has an incremental plan to upgrade its Centaur V upper stage to fly long-duration space missions. The Centaur V powers the company’s new Vulcan rocket, which is on the verge of being certified to fly national security missions. The upper stage of a rocket is used to propel a payload further into space after the initial booster has separated. The Centaur V was designed to be more than twice as powerful as its predecessor and to remain in orbit for as long as 12 hours.
Defense News
The British, Japanese, and Italian firms partnered on the sixth-generation Global Combat Air Programme fighter announced on Dec. 13 the launch of a joint venture dedicated to the program which will be headquartered in London, have an Italian CEO, and be up and running by mid-2025.
The Wall Street Journal
“As Syrian rebels approached Damascus last weekend, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Moscow’s main Arab ally, as a minor episode in a planet-wide struggle. ... Though leaders in the West may scoff at Lavrov’s attempt to downplay Moscow’s geopolitical setback in Syria, they broadly agree with his view that the world is increasingly split into two rival camps,” writes Yaroslav Trofimov, chief foreign-affairs correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.
DefenseScoop
Following the inclusion of language in the annual defense policy bill to study alternate organizational models for military cyber forces—albeit softer than initially proposed—those in the cyber community remain positive regarding an independent assessment of a potential standalone service.
Breaking Defense
At last week’s Reagan National Defense Forum, the Department of Government Efficiency was a hot topic. For some, the initiative—not, it should be noted, actually a department, but rather a backronym to get to DOGE, the favored meme of Elon Musk—is a curiosity, a group with unclear power or influence. For others, it represents a potential threat, either to their business or to their power centers—or a chance to make changes to a system that is designed to resist them.
Military.com
Military households will receive an average 5.4 percent increase in their Basic Allowance for Housing in 2025. The Defense Department announced the annual update Dec. 13, and the new housing allowance rates will take effect on Jan. 1.
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Inside Defense
The U.S. military inched closer to fielding a new class of ultra-fast, maneuvering weapons—a 16-year odyssey to precisely attack targets more than 2,000 miles away with a non-nuclear strike—following a “successful” flight test over the Atlantic Ocean of the Common Hypersonic Missile.
POLITICO
Donald Trump’s allies have taken credit for getting Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) to bend on the president-elect’s pick for Pentagon chief. But the past 24 hours have shown the former Fox News host is bending too. Pete Hegseth softened his stance against women in combat and gays in the military after he previously suggested they shouldn’t fill those roles.
The War Zone
There are clear signs that Russian forces, including an S-400 surface-to-air missile system, are withdrawing from Khmeimim Air Base in Syria. At the same time, authorities in Russia continue to insist that no final decisions have been made about the future of their presence at Khmeimim or their naval base in Tartus since the fall of their long-time ally Bashar Al Assad last weekend.
Breaking Defense
As the US military embraces artificial intelligence and big data, the Pentagon is trying to wean itself from reliance on centralized mega-systems and instead empower frontline leaders at the “tactical edge.” That’s why, last week, the Pentagon’s Chief Digital & AI Office (CDAO) awarded startup defense firm Anduril a $100 million, three-year contract to expand its Lattice Mesh. ... Then, this week, Anduril released a Lattice Software Development Kit (SDK) that will allow other companies to build their own applications to run on Lattice Mesh, without having to get permission from Anduril.
One More Thing
USA Today
Yes, space exploration that was once the realm of science fiction will soon be an imminent reality. And in 2024, NASA, SpaceX, and others helped make possible a number of missions that will lay the groundwork. Here's a look back at five of the most pivotal space missions from 2024.
