USAF Launches Global Base Security Review After Andrews Breach

By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

Acting Air Force Secretary John P. Roth and USAF Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. ordered the Air Force Inspector General to conduct a “comprehensive review of installation security and trends” following the Feb. 4 breach at Joint Base Andrews, Md., in which an unarmed civilian man made his way onto a C-40B aircraft before being apprehended, the department said in a statement. The review will cover Air Force and Space Force installations across the globe, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby noted during a Feb. 5 press briefing. It is the second deep-dive into USAF base security practices since 2017.

Lasers Come to the Digital Battlefield in New Exercise

By Rachel S. Cohen

Fighter pilots can’t yet fire lasers on their real jets, but a new wargame series will let them try it out in cyberspace. Armed with computers and virtual reality headsets, F-16 pilots, F-15E weapon system officers, and an E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System air battle manager worked through various uses for an airborne laser against air-to-air and surface-to-air threats. The practice helps pave the way for the SHiELD laser pod and more powerful versions in the future.

AEI On Flat Budgets: Keep the People, Reduce Force Structure

By John A. Tirpak

If defense budgets are going to be flat, Pentagon leaders should opt for a different set of tradeoffs, emphasizing larger numbers of people and innovative concepts and less force structure and modernization as the right formula for near- and long-term readiness, according to a new policy paper from the American Enterprise Institute.

Biden’s Pentagon to Keep Turkey Out of F-35 Program

By Rachel S. Cohen

The Biden administration is continuing its predecessor’s policy of excluding Turkey from the international F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby indicated Feb. 5. Pentagon officials kicked Turkey, a NATO ally, out of the F-35 coalition because it bought the S-400 air defense system from Russia—a purchase the U.S. has said puts American military information at risk. “Our position has not changed,” Kirby said at a Pentagon press briefing. “The S-400 is incompatible with the F-35 and Turkey has been suspended from that program.”

30 Years After Desert Storm: Feb. 8

In commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of Operation Desert Storm, Air Force Magazine is posting daily recollections from the six-week war, which expelled Iraq from occupied Kuwait.