 |
 |
|
Feb. 6, 2020
|
|
Edited by Amy McCullough with Rachel S. Cohen, Brian W. Everstine and John A. Tirpak
|
| View In Browser |
 |
|
By Brian W. Everstine
The U.S. Space Force is being built from the existing Air Force with a priority to keep a small and low-priced footprint, relying heavily on existing force structure. The Air Force on Feb. 3 sent a 26-page document to Congress outlining the plan for the structure of the new service —with the main goal to be lean, agile, and “minimize cost and bureaucracy.” The document, which was required under the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, likely will continue to evolve, with a finalized version expected in early May. “Building the Space Force from the ground up is an historic opportunity to take a clean sheet approach to designing a 21st century military service with a streamlined organizational structure,” Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett wrote
in the document.
|
|
|
By Rachel S. Cohen
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif.—You see the intercontinental ballistic missile before you hear it. Upon ignition in its underground silo, the horizon blooms bright red-orange, and a ball of light rises west over the Pacific Ocean. A dull roar intensifies as the unarmed nuclear missile jets upward to arc over the moon on its way to the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. As the weapons reach 50 years since they were first deployed across the U.S., the Air Force is checking that its more than 400 Minuteman IIIs can still perform. At the same time, the service is looking ahead to the future Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent missiles that will replace Minuteman III and outlast some of the people managing it.
|
 |
|
By John A. Tirpak
A health of the defense industrial base was given a grade of "C" by the National Defense Industrial Association in a report released Feb. 5. The NDIA says the report will be issued annually to gauge whether the industrial base is able to surge at need, is properly funded, and is not onerously regulated, among many other evaluated factors. The grade was pulled down by cyber theft and a shortage of skilled labor and materials, but was buoyed by strong demand for U.S. defense goods and services.
|
|
|
By Brian W. Everstine
Two charted aircraft arrived at Travis Air Force Base, California, on Feb. 5 carrying about 350 passengers evacuated from the epicenter of the new coronavirus outbreak. The 747s flew from Wuhan, China, and were received at Travis by personnel from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Passengers from one of the planes will be quarantined for 14 days at a hotel on base, while the other aircraft refueled and continued on to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. Also on Feb. 5, the Pentagon announced Camp Ashland, Nebraska, also will provide housing for up to 75 people who may be quarantined upon returning to the United States.
|
 |
 |
| |
| |
Radar Sweep
|
| |
Trump Praises U.S. Military Buildup but Vows Overseas Troop Cuts in State of the Union Address
Defense News
President Donald Trump hailed the U.S. military as “unmatched anywhere in the world” and vowed to use it to pursue terrorists worldwide in his annual State of the Union speech on the night of Feb. 4, but he also vowed to end America’s wars in the Middle East because of the strain they have put on military families.
|
|
Nominee for Top Pentagon Personnel Job Withdraws after Op-Ed Surfaces
Politico
In 2017, J. David Patterson co-wrote an op-ed for The Federalist website blaming mass killings on immigrants who failed to “assimilate” into American culture.
|
|
ODNI Plans to Share More about Cyber Threats Under New Counterintelligence Strategy
Nextgov
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence will take a “whole of society” approach that hopes to encourage greater private-sector participation in protecting the country from cyber threats, according to a leading official who said a related strategy document will be published Feb 10.
|
|
Esper Issues Talking Points Before Pentagon Budget Roll-Out
Military Times
All roads lead to the National Defense Strategy from here on out, Defense Secretary Mark Esper wrote Jan. 27 in a memo to top military leadership. The Pentagon plans to put its money where its mouth is as it announces the fiscal 2021 budget, according to the memo, focusing funding on the kinds of programs and weapons that will bring the U.S. up to snuff with competitors like China and Russia.
|
|
Russian Submarine Activity Has Picked Up in Atlantic, Navy 3-Star Says
Military.com
U.S. ships leaving the East Coast must now consider the Atlantic Ocean a contested battlespace, a U.S. Navy three-star said this week, as Russian activity continues to pick up just off the American coast.
|
|
315th AW Delivers Humanitarian Aid to Honduras
USAF release
Airmen from the 315th Airlift Wing deployed a C-17 Globemaster III Feb. 1 to deliver donated humanitarian aid to Honduras in support of the Denton Program.
|
|
Military Sexual Assault Reform Pledge Backed by Majority of Presidential Candidates
Federal News Network’s “Federal Drive” podcast
One of the preeminent service member sexual assault awareness organizations has the support of most presidential candidates, and at least slight consideration from the second highest military official, in an effort to change the way the most serious crimes in the military are prosecuted.
|
|
New OCP Uniforms: Time is Running Out to Start Wearing New Items
Air Force Times
The Air Force is getting ready for the next steps in the transition to the Operational Camouflage Pattern uniform across the service. Beginning June 1, airmen will only be allowed to wear a coyote brown T-shirt with the OCP and will no longer be allowed to wear the lighter desert sand shirt under their new utility uniforms, Air Education and Training Command said in a release.
|
|
Judge OKs Limited Release of Pentagon Papers Case Records
Associated Press
The government must release some documents that will shed light on two grand juries that sat in Boston nearly 50 years ago to investigate the leak of the Pentagon Papers, a federal judge ruled Feb. 4. The records detailing the probe into the publication of records that exposed the deceit of American policymakers during the Vietnam War were sought by Jill Lepore, a Harvard University professor and New Yorker staff writer.
|
|
Toxic ‘Black Goo’ Base Used by U.S. Had Enriched Uranium. More Veterans Report Cancer
McClatchy
For the last six weeks, a private Facebook group set up to help veterans who served at a toxic base in Uzbekistan has been flooded with new members, many with hauntingly familiar stories: I served at K2. I have cancer.
|
| |
One More Thing
This Is What Nellis Air Force Base's Ongoing Red Flag Exercise Looks Like from Space
The Drive
Red Flag is nearly half a century old and it is still the world's top air combat training event, the latest iteration of which is very exclusive.
|
|
| |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 
|
|
