President Joe Biden said May 8 that he would not supply offensive weapons that Israel could use to launch an all-out assault on Rafah—the last major Hamas stronghold in Gaza—over concern for the well-being of the more than 1 million civilians sheltering there.
The U.S. Air Force is now operating its Unmanned Long-endurance Tactical Reconnaissance Aircraft, or ULTRA, from Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates. The drone was developed as a low-cost, ultra-long-endurance, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) platform, one of a number of efforts that seek to plug critical gaps in the Air Force’s reconnaissance capabilities.
“The Pentagon recently sent Congress some draft bill language to consider this year that reads like an advertisement for taking a Costco-like approach to buying hardware. In its proposal, Pentagon leaders tout the power of long-term consistent demand and the benefits of purchasing enough so as to achieve economies of scale,” writes Mackenzie Eaglen, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute think tank.
U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) is looking at near-term remedies for keeping its Bell Boeing CV-22 fleet healthy as it returns to flight but is looking more intently at a capability for high-speed vertical takeoff and landing (HSVTOL) beyond the Osprey.
An attorney for the family of a Florida special operations Airman who was shot and killed in his home by local police said May 8 that officers responding to a reported disturbance may have entered the wrong apartment.
The Department of the Air Force has delayed certifying a design baseline for the Space Force’s program with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to develop a new satellite system to track moving targets on the ground—with space acquisition czar Frank Calvelli punting the review to allow time to flesh out the program’s likely costs, according to a spokesperson for his office.
In direct response to recent complaints from industry officials about how the authority to operate (ATO) process is hindering rapid technology and software innovation, Department of Defense leadership issued new guidance aimed at resolving risk management and cybersecurity reciprocity challenges.
The U.S. military is pumping the brakes on a high-profile program that intended to convert an MC-130J special operations tanker/transport aircraft into a floatplane. U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has largely blamed budgetary pressures for this decision. At the same time, SOCOM is also actively exploring alternative ways of providing added air mobility, especially in a potential conflict in the Pacific region against China.
The two leads of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee indicated they will push for the Pentagon’s fiscal 2025 budget to eclipse the roughly $850 billion requested by the Biden administration. Sens. Jon Tester, the Montana Democrat who chairs the subcommittee, and Susan Collins, the ranking Republican from Maine, stated that they are in lockstep that the military needs more money, despite a budget cap imposed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
The National Space Council will delve into the question of national security space roles and responsibilities, Chirag Parikh, the council’s executive secretary, said May 8 at the 2024 GEOINT Symposium. In discussions with various departments, agencies, services, and combatant commanders, the National Space Council is looking into the ongoing tug-of-war between military leaders concerned with speedy access to imagery and data and intelligence agency leaders who emphasize the need to verify information and gather insights.
The US Space Force located a tiny experimental satellite after it spent two-and-a–half decades missing in orbit. Hopefully, they’ll be able to keep an eye on it for good—unlike the last time. The S73-7 Infra-Red Calibration Balloon (IRCB) was dead on arrival after ejecting from one of the Air Force’s largest Cold War orbital spy camera systems. Although it successfully departed the KH-9 Hexagon reconnaissance satellite about 500 miles above Earth in 1974, the S73-7 failed to inflate to its full 26-inch diameter. The malfunction prevented it from aiding ground based equipment triangulate remote sensing arrays and thus rendered it yet another hunk of space junk.
