The Pentagon is deploying two fighter squadrons and an air expeditionary wing to Saudi Arabia, along with two Patriot Missile defense batteries and one Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, following reported Iranian-backed attacks on that country. Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley announced the deployment during an Oct. 11 briefing, saying it is at the request of US Central Command. This deployment, along with others that were recently approved, adds up to about 3,000 personnel. Read the full story by Brian Everstine.

JBSA-LACKLAND, Texas—The Air Force on Oct. 11 formally stood up 16th Air Force, the new “information dominance” organization that will bring cyber, intelligence, and other operations together under one roof here after more than two years in the works. By merging the two organizations, the Air Force aims to get a better understanding of what’s happening in the digital realm so it can more easily attack, defend against, and smoke out bad actors as the Pentagon turns to data- and algorithm-driven “wars of cognition.” Bringing them together opens opportunities for collaboration between the RQ-4, U-2, RC-135, Distributed Common Ground System, cyber, and other enterprises that have been stymied in the past, service officials argue. Read the full story by Rachel S. Cohen.

The Royal Air Force is already seeing good results from forming its own Rapid Capabilities Office, modeled on that of the US Air Force, according to its leader, Air Chief Marshal Michael Wigston. Speaking at an AFA Mitchell Institute on Aerospace Studies event on October 11, Wigston said the RAF is also using a model similar to USAF’s new “Century Series” initiative to develop its next combat aircraft, the Tempest, and expects there will be “healthy competition” between the two services. He also predicted few changes in the near future for Britain’s F-35 participation, despite a debate about the right mix of A and B models. Read the full story by John A. Tirpak.

Concern over cyber threats to commercial space assets is driving industry executives to seek White House designation of space as critical national infrastructure. They’re forming a Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center, or Space-ISAC, amid growing concern that foreign adversaries could exploit weak cybersecurity in US space-based assets to blind the nation’s military or cripple its economy. Read the full story by Shaun Waterman.

Alexei Leonov, the first person to make a spacewalk and the Russian most likely to have been first on the moon if the Soviet Union had won the space race, died in Moscow on Oct 11 at age 85. Leonov was one of the first class of cosmonauts, having been a Soviet air force pilot, and was the last survivor of that group. He walked in space in 1965, barely making it back inside his Voshkod spacecraft. He also commanded the Russian half of the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the first linkup of Russian and American spacecraft in orbit. In later years he was a writer and painter, penning a history of the space race with American astronaut David Scott. Read the full story by John A. Tirpak.

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