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July 8, 2020
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Edited by Rachel S. Cohen with Brian W. Everstine, Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory and John A. Tirpak
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 The U.S. Capitol at sunset. Photo via the Architect of the Capitol on Twitter. |
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By Rachel S. Cohen
House appropriators are planning to offer the Pentagon $694.6 billion for operations, personnel, and procurement, plus another $10.5 billion for military construction, in fiscal 2021. The Defense Department funding proposal is $1.3 billion higher than DOD received in fiscal 2020, but nearly $4 billion lower than the Trump administration requested. It spans $626.2 billion for the base account and another $68.4 billion to fund ongoing combat and deterrence operations in the Overseas Contingency Operations account.
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By Brian W. Everstine
The Air Force this month saw its highest one-week spike of coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, with more than 1,000 new cases reported among uniformed military, civilian, dependents, and contractors from June 29 to July 6. As of July 6, there were 3,325 total COVID-19 cases in the service, including 2,121 within the uniformed ranks. That compares to 2,300 total and 1,366 military cases as of June 29, according to Air Force data released July 7. The week of June 29 saw the Air Force's second civilian death, eight new hospitalizations, and 99 new recoveries. The increase comes as the United States sees COVID-19 surge in several states, and as the military grows its ability to test more people for the virus.
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By John A. Tirpak
A bipartisan group of four senators are demanding that the Pentagon explain why Turkey's expulsion from the F-35 program—to have been completed in March—now isn't expected until 2022. The senators said the sense of Congress on the matter is clear, and they want no further delay in ousting Ankara from the fighter program. The Pentagon argues it was trying to avoid costly disruption, but senators believe the delay is making the U.S. look weak.
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By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory
Elizabeth Jo Shirley, a former Active-duty and Reserve Airman, confessed to illegally holding onto a National Security Agency document that contained top-secret information, as well as to kidnapping her child, the Justice Department announced July 6. The DOJ alleges that she planned on passing classified information to Russia.
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By Rachel S. Cohen
Air Force officials are still looking to perfect directed-energy weapons to use against the low-tech threat of small drones before scaling up lasers and microwaves to take out cruise missiles. The Air Force’s high-power microwave weapon known as the Tactical High-Power Microwave Operational Responder, or THOR, is heading to the Army’s White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico for further testing, Don Shiffler, chief scientist in the Air Force Research Laboratory’s directed energy branch, said July 7. He added the Self-Protect High-Energy Laser Demonstrator, or SHiELD, program is having difficulty shrinking a powerful laser into a pod compact enough to fly on an airplane.
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By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory
Tomorrow, AFA's Mitchell Institute will host a virtual rollout for its newest paper, "Resolving America’s Defense Strategy-Resource Mismatch: The Case for Cost-Per-Effect Analysis." Event video will tentatively be posted on Mitchell's website and YouTube page after the event.
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Radar Sweep
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Snapshot: DOD and COVID-19
Air Force Magazine
Here's a look at how the Defense Department is being impacted by and responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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VA Reports Nearly 5,000 Active Cases of COVID-19 Among VA Patients
Military Times
Veterans Affairs Department officials reported nearly 5,000 active cases of coronavirus among patients under their care as of the morning of July 7, but VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said that threefold increase in cases over the last month doesn’t point to the department’s system being overwhelmed.
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MacDill Air Force Reservists Return from Fighting COVID-19 in New York
Air Force Times
The 927th Air Refueling Wing sent eight medics to New York to be a part of 281 Air Force Reserve medical professionals who volunteered and saw more than 37,000 patients between mid-April and June. They sent an additional dozen aeromedical evacuation Airmen across the nation for other COVID-19 relief missions.
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Senate Kills NDAA Language to ‘Usurp’ Civilian Control Of Nuke Budget
Breaking Defense
"The compromise still achieves Chairman Inhofe’s goal of giving the Department of Defense more direct involvement in the development of the NNSA [National Nuclear Security Administration] budget, but the final approval power still rests with the Secretary of Energy," Senate Armed Services Committee spokesperson Marta Hernandez says.
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REPORT: ‘Offense–Defense Integration for Missile Defeat’
CSIS report
“Improved ODI [offense-defense integration] would go a long way to countering modern missile threats,” writes Brian Green, a senior, non-resident associate in the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Missile Defense Project. “But ODI is not a panacea. A better appreciation of its benefits and challenges should give decisionmakers a better sense of how to proceed.”
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Two Female Airmen Reclassify After Attempting to Complete Special Ops Training
Military.com
Two women who had been attempting to enter the U.S. Air Force's combat controller and pararescue career fields since last fall were recently reclassified into other jobs after not meeting the rigorous battlefield Airman standards.
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Germany Spent over $1 Billion to Cover Costs Linked to US Troops Stationed There
The Associated Press via TIME
The German government has paid more than $1 billion over the past decade to cover costs related to the stationing of U.S. troops in Germany, according to the finance ministry in Berlin. The ministry provided the figures in reply to a query from opposition Left Party lawmaker Brigitte Freihold.
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U.N. Expert Deems US Drone Strike on Iran's Soleimani an 'Unlawful' Killing
Reuters
The January U.S. drone strike in Iraq that killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and nine other people represented a violation of international law, a U.N. human rights investigator said on July 6. The United States has failed to provide sufficient evidence of an ongoing or imminent attack against its interests to justify the strike on Soleimani’s convoy as it left Baghdad airport, said Agnes Callamard, U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions.
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With a View Toward Iran, Israel Launches Spy Satellite
The Associated Press
Israel said it successfully launched a new spy satellite into space on July 6 as its leaders hinted it was behind a massive fire at an Iranian nuclear site last week—potentially ratcheting up a long-running covert war.
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Boeing Defense and Space’s Leanne Caret: ‘We’re Owning Our Mistakes’
Aviation Week Network
Leanne Caret, president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space and Security, spoke via teleconference with Aviation Week editors in the run-up to what would have been the Farnborough Airshow.
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State Department Clears Nearly $8B in Potential Foreign Arms Deals
Inside Defense
The State Department has given the green light to five potential foreign military sales collectively worth nearly $8 billion, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced July 6.
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How the Army is Approaching Joint All-Domain Command and Control
C4ISRNET
In a wide-ranging interview with C4ISRNET’s Nathan Strout, Brig. Gen. Rob Collins discussed the various efforts he’s led in intelligence, electronic warfare and sensors, the lessons he’s learned there, and how the Army is approaching multi-domain operations.
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Saginaw Air Force Sergeant Gets Medal for Saving Woman from Drowning in Mediterranean Sea
MLive.com
A Saginaw, Mich., native serving in the U.S. Air Force has earned military honors for saving the life of a woman in danger of drowning. Tech. Sgt. Nathaniel Juarez received an Air Force Commendation Medal on June 24 for saving the woman in 2017 while he was on leave.
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One More Thing
Meet the First and Only Air Force Pilot to Shoot Down a Satellite
Task and Purpose
On September 13, 1985, an Air Force pilot pushed his F-15A into a steep climb at near-supersonic speeds as he prepared to launch into history. The pilot had prepared many months for what he was about to do: fire a heat-seeking missile towards a satellite the size of a 1969 Volkswagen as it hurtled through orbit at five miles a second. Basically, he was about to hit a bullet with another bullet, which would require absolutely perfect timing. But the pilot was ready for it.
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