Lt. Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich, commander of Air Forces Central, supports the Pentagon’s broad shift in focus toward countering China, but sees a role for his command to help reassure regional allies and enhance the U.S. military capabilities in the region, he said Feb. 13.
The Air Force is pursuing Collaborative Combat Aircraft—uncrewed aircraft that will fly as “wingmen” to crewed fighters—but must ensure they don’t get so overloaded with capability that they become unaffordable, Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. said. The upcoming fiscal 2024 budget will ...
Air assets and strategic partnerships remain pivotal components to the Pentagon’s basing strategy, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region, Mara Karlin, assistant secretary of Defense for strategy, plans, and capabilities, said during a Brookings Institution online forum Feb. 10.In the Indo-Pacific, Karlin emphasized recent “posture investments” ...
The appearance of a Chinese surveillance balloon over North America in recent days should cause Americans to ponder just how safe they are from aerial attack. Can we defend our airspace from modern drones (unmanned air vehicles), hypersonic missiles, ballistic missiles, and—yes—from airships? Congress should ...
Beijing has rebuffed Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III’s latest attempt to talk with his Chinese counterpart following the U.S. downing of a Chinese spy balloon, the Pentagon said Feb. 8. The balloon’s intrusion over the continental U.S., and the failure to establish a dialogue ...
A U.S. Air Force F-22 shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4, a week after it first entered U.S. airspace near Alaska. Officials said they took measures to prevent the balloon from gathering sensitive military information and ...
The U.S. will be able to rotate troops and build facilities at four new bases in the Philippines, officials from the two countries announced Feb. 1, as they deepen their military cooperation to counter China.
The Pentagon is tracking what it says is a Chinese surveillance balloon over the continental United States, it said Feb. 2. The U.S. military scrambled two Air Force F-22 Raptors from Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. on Feb. 1 in response to the incident, Air ...
Air Mobility Command boss Gen. Mike Minihan generated international headlines when a memo to his Airmen in which he suggested the U.S. “will fight in 2025” with China leaked to the media. In the days that followed, national security experts and even Airmen themselves have ...
The Space Force must transition from delivering behind-the-scenes support to playing a more active role in which space capabilities are continuously tested and contested—and it must do so in as short a time as possible, said Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman in ...
On Jan. 27, a memo from Air Mobility Command boss Gen. Mike Minihan began circulating on social media. In it, Minihan warned of a possible war between the U.S. and China in 2025 and offered instructions for the Airmen of AMC.
Comments by Air Force Gen. Mike Minihan, the head of Air Mobility Command, about a potential war with China in the next few years have generated international headlines and led the Department of Defense to formally distance itself from the remarks. Minihan, who is known for ...