Pentagon officials confirm that the US lost a remotely piloted aircraft during a mission over Afghanistan, but they do not confirm that it is an RQ-170, a new stealthy RPA first publicly revealed Dec. 4, 2009. However, unnamed US defense and intelligence officials tell news media that the RPA went down due to a malfunction in eastern Iran. Iran has claimed it shot down an RQ-170.
The Department of the Air Force's new space acquisition chief said he will seek to expand the types of orbits used by the Space Force's future satellite constellations in the interest of improving their resilience. At the same time, he would aim to acquire smaller satellites that can be produced…