The Trump administration is reportedly considering pulling out of the Open Skies Treaty, a move that has raised some alarm in Washington, D.C., despite years of concern that Russia is disobeying the pact. House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) raised the possibility of leaving the treaty, calling it a “reckless action” in an Oct. 7 letter to National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien. “Observation flights under the treaty have generated additional information regarding Russian military action in Ukraine and provided a check on further Russian aggression there,” Engel wrote. A Pentagon spokesperson referred questions on treaty flights to the State Department, which did not respond by press time. The White House did not respond to a request for comment Oct. 8. Read the full story by Rachel S. Cohen.

A pilot from the 52nd Fighter Wing at Spangdahlem AB, Germany, successfully ejected from their F-16 when it crashed Oct. 8 in a rural area near the base. A problem occurred as the F-16 was flying a routine training mission, and the pilot attempted to return to base, according to a Spangdahlem release. The fighter jet crashed at about 3 p.m. local time near Zemmer, south of the base. The pilot sustained minor injuries, according to the wing. Local police said on Twitter that several roads around the crash site were closed and emergency services were on site. The aircraft was assigned to the 480th Fighter Squadron at the base. An investigation board will release more information as it becomes available. —Brian Everstine

US aircraft in Afghanistan tallied the second highest number of airstrikes for a single month in at least the past 10 years, as the war there reaches its 18th anniversary. Manned and unmanned American aircraft in September conducted 948 airstrikes, the highest total since the tally reached 1,043 in October 2010, according to numbers released Oct. 8 by Air Forces Central Command. AFCENT’s public totals date back to the beginning of 2009 and include US and coalition aircraft. Overall, US operations in Afghanistan are running at a pace not seen in years. Seventeen US service members have been killed in that war so far in 2019. Read the full story by Brian Everstine.

Dedrone, a company that designs technology to detect and defeat threatening unmanned aerial vehicles, is opening a consulting branch upon buying another system from its partner Battelle. Dedrone Defense, the new consultancy, will offer services to the federal government as well as “a proven, end-to-end solution that detects and classifies airspace activity, protects assets from drone threats, and defeats adversary drones,” according to an Oct. 8 release. “DroneDefender and all operations associated with the technology will be led from the company’s Washington, D.C.-area office, under the new entity, Dedrone Defense.” Battelle’s DroneDefender is a sort of electromagnetic gun that disrupts the radio frequencies that control a UAV when fired at the aircraft. Dedrone indicated that DroneDefender will integrate into its own DroneTracker software that finds nearby UAVs and triggers countermeasures. “We have a number of active contracts we will be fulfilling as part of the acquisition,” a company spokeswoman said Oct. 8, without disclosing the Defense Department customers. Battelle and Dedrone have collaborated since August 2017, and their combined capabilities won a military-sponsored counter-UAV prototyping competition in 2018. —Rachel S. Cohen