News
Ukraine’s fire-dropping drones can find, shock Russian troops: Experts
The Ukrainian military has begun utilizing first-person-view drones with a thermite spray capability over forested areas where Russian troops and equipment are hiding, a tactic that experts say can be a legitimate weapon of war, but only under strict circumstances.
New group supporting independent veterans endorses first 9 candidates
A new organization created to support independent veterans running for office endorsed its first nine candidates Tuesday, ranging from an Army veteran running for a seat on the Raleigh, North Carolina, city council, to a Navy veteran campaigning for the U.S. Senate.
Japan’s defense minister rejects incremental relocation of Marine airfield on Okinawa
Relocating a Marine Corps airfield from a heavily populated city on Okinawa to a rural northern area in phases would unnecessarily lengthen the time to build the new facility, Japan’s defense minister said this week.
Air Force
Father and son airmen tackle deployment together
As they serve alongside one another, an airman father is providing a blueprint for his airman son.
New Air Mobility boss promises to continue command’s transformation
Gen. John D. Lamontagne took over Sept. 9 as the top officer at Air Mobility Command, promising to continue the organization’s sweeping preparations for the prospect of war in the Pacific that have picked up speed in recent years.
US airman being investigated in connection with Venice nightclub stabbing
A U.S. airman is under investigation after a weekend stabbing outside a Venice nightclub left a young man hospitalized in serious condition, according to an Air Force spokesperson.
First AC-130J arrives at Kirtland in new chapter for gunship training
Late last month, Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico welcomed a new resident: an AC-130J Ghostrider flying in from its old home at Hurlburt Field, Florida.
Westover Air Reserve Base personnel, local officials mull response to hypothetical EMP attack
More than 40 police, firefighters, Air Force members from Westover Air Reserve Base and the people who run the region’s power grid gathered Tuesday in a basement conference room to think about the unthinkable.
How a new organization is helping tie the Air Force together with software
Just a few hallways removed from the massive industrial floor of Building 9001, where technicians, welders and mechanics grind away to keep Air Force planes flying, a highy skilled team is solving crucial problems without bending metal, changing fluids, or fiddling with wires.
Airmen’s search for remains recalls top secret WWII mission to turn planes into flying bombs
Dozens of U.S. airmen in England assisted with an archaeological dig earlier this year aimed at finding the remains of an Army pilot lost there during World War II, and in the process helped shine a light on one of the war’s most ambitious and ill-fated secret operations against the Nazis.
Kendall: ‘One size doesn’t fit all’ for deployment cycles
The Air Force is making sweeping changes in how it deploys Airmen, but the differences among the major commands’ needs are creating problems in the quest to define a single new deployment model as top commanders push back the idea that one system will work across the entire force.
Space Force
Space Force extends Sev1Tech contract to continue work on meshONE-T for DAF Battle Network
The Space Force today awarded Virginia-based Sev1Tech an $188 million follow-on production agreement to expand the meshONE-Terrestrial network used by the Department of the Air Force’s Battle Network.
Defense
Anduril, General Atomics to showcase drone wingmen models at Air Force conference next week
The Air Force will show off full-scale models of two autonomous combat drones next week during its flagship conference, the service’s top official said Tuesday.
Anduril brings Roadrunner drone and solid rocket motor to Australia for first time
Eager to broaden the Australian military’s knowledge of its products, which is currently focused mostly mostly on the Ghost Shark autonomous drone submarine, Anduril Australia has brought its Roadrunner autonomous air vehicle and other systems here for the first time.
Expect Air Force’s first robot wingmen to be AMRAAM ‘trucks’
Increment-one CCAs will essentially haul extra air-to-air rounds for F-35, F-22, RTX says.
Veterans
This dental nonprofit will fix veterans’ teeth for free
Marine Corps veteran Arturo Gamboa can’t stop smiling. It wasn’t always like this. For most of his life, the 65-year-old Gamboa grinded his teeth, and because the former corporal lacked dental insurance, he figured nothing could be done to fix his worn-down and cracked teeth. Then he discovered Everyone for Veterans, a nonprofit that connects eligible military veterans and their spouses to dentists in their communities for free oral care.
VA ordered to provide hundreds of additional shelter beds, build nearly 2,000 housing units for homeless veterans in LA
The Department of Veterans Affairs must establish hundreds of additional shelter beds within 18 months and build another 1,800 units of subsidized apartments by 2030 after a federal court ruled the agency has failed to comply with an agreement to develop a west Los Angeles campus with housing for disabled homeless veterans.
Alabama Veterans Affairs Commissioner Kent Davis meets with Gov. Kay Ivey, will resign at end of year
Ivey had called for Davis to resign last week because of what she described as mishandling of applications for federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
GOP lawmakers to subpoena VA over decision to register voters at medical facilities before presidential election
House GOP lawmakers pushed through a subpoena Tuesday to force the Department of Veterans Affairs to identify its third-party partners conducting voter registration at some VA hospitals and clinics in battleground states before the presidential election.
