Naval News – Naval News reached out to the RAND Corporation, an independent non-profit Think Tank, for comments on how the U.S. Air Force’s new B-21 “Raider” stealth heavy bomber can operate with the U.S. Navy in a maritime role.

War Zone – The U.S. Air Force’s B-1 bomber community has become primarily focused on executing very long-range land-attack and anti-ship strike missions utilizing stand-off cruise missiles as the supersonic swing-wing jets steadily enter the twilight of their careers. 

War on the Rocks – The U.S. military once dominated the electromagnetic spectrum, but due to lack of investment and years of flying close air-support missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. skills have atrophied.

The Atlantic – Mark Bowden says Russia’s war on Ukraine has given us just a peek of the world to come.

War Zone – The Air Force has said it wants its new anti-ship version of the ubiquitous Joint Direct Attack Munition to have “torpedo-like” capabilities.

War Zone – While plans for an amphibious MC-130 transport take shape, Cope North 2022 provided an opportunity to see the capabilities of the US-2 firsthand.

(Thanks to Alain)

New Yorker – Artificial intelligence is being taught to fly warplanes. Can the technology be trusted?

Air Force Magazine – The Air Force is about to roll out another aspect of its new Force Generation model (AFFORGEN): Air Base Squadrons are designed to provide forward-deployed units the necessary support to conduct operations from widely dispersed and likely austere locations with a minimal footprint of people and gear.

War on the Rocks – Today, America’s military posture, which is comprised of forces, bases, and agreements, is a critical issue that needs a senior champion. China has a formidable arsenal of conventionally armed long-range missiles that are significantly more accurate than the ones that the Soviet Union had during the Cold War and plans to fire them in a first strike to destroy U.S. forces on the land and at sea. The Defense Department should ensure that American forces in the Indo-Pacific can survive this blow and generate combat power while under attack, which requires taking steps to increase the resiliency of U.S. military posture.

Navy Times – The push for joint warfare spurs more Air Force focus on anti-ship tactics, weapons.

Hudson Institute – The US military’s aerial refueling enterprise is a critical component of its ability to project power globally in defense of American interests. As the US military adopts new concepts to enhance its lethality and gain decision advantage, aerial refueling is increasingly necessary to enable a more distributed and dynamic force. However, with an aging inventory of tanker aircraft and stiff budgetary headwinds, it is an open question whether the US Air Force is capable of fielding the aerial refueling force that the nation needs. This study assesses the current and programmed US aerial refueling enterprise and has found that it likely would be unable to support US strategy and operational concepts at scale against peer adversaries such as the People’s Republic of China. However, the US military could address these shortfalls and improve the operational resilience of its aerial refueling enterprise by adopting new concepts, capabilities, capacities, and posture.

War Zone – A non-maritime patrol variant of the P-8 could provide the Air Force with a highly flexible platform for augmenting the bomber force and much more.

60 Minutes – We have tackled many strange stories on 60 Minutes, but perhaps none like this. It’s the story of the U.S. government’s grudging acknowledgment of unidentified aerial phenomena— UAP—more commonly known as UFOs. After decades of public denial the Pentagon now admits there’s something out there, and the U.S. Senate wants to know what it is. The intelligence committee has ordered the director of national intelligence and the secretary of defense to deliver a report on the mysterious sightings by next month.

New Yorker – For decades, flying saucers were a punch line. Then the U.S. government got over the taboo.

Aviationist – A local newspaper reported that the development of external fuel tanks for the F-35 is still ongoing and will possibly be complete in two years.

Defense News – The U.S. Air Force repelled a Chinese invasion of Taiwan during a massive war game last fall by relying on drones acting as a sensing grid, an advanced sixth-generation fighter jet able to penetrate the most contested environments, cargo planes dropping pallets of guided munitions and other novel technologies yet unseen on the modern battlefield.

War Zone – With the threat of China rising, the Pentagon is looking for new airfields and to expand existing ones for distributed operations in the Pacific.

Air Force – USAF warms to a new strategy and increased competition in the vital polar region.

Aviationist – Icarus Aerospace announced last week the partnership with CAE Defence & Security to provide their Wasp-M, the fully militarized version of their OV-10 Bronco-revamp called TAV (Tactical Air Vehicle), with the company’s digital Magnetic Anomaly Detection-Extended Role (MAD-XR) system, designed with reduced size, weight, and power requirements to allow smaller platforms such as unmanned aerial systems (UASs), helicopters and smaller fixed-wing aircraft to carry a MAD sensor for Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) missions.

(Thanks to Alain)

Naval News – MQ-9B SeaGuardian maritime tests flights concluded off the coast of California on September 11th. They can probably be seen as the next step toward a worldwide export success. Indeed, if the first variant of the MQ-9 Predator-B mainly served as an ISR platform for above ground missions, the new MQ-9B SkyGuardian/SeaGuardian is likely to find much more customers in its maritime variant.

National Interest – James Holmes writes that Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. is a wrecker and a builder. The new U.S. Air Force chief of staff wants to uproot post-Cold War attitudes toward air warfare—attitudes premised on everlasting U.S. air supremacy—and implant a mindset premised on competitive entrepreneurship. Can he succeed? 

– Forbes – Stratospheric balloons may solve one of the U.S. military’s thorniest problems: gathering intelligence in ‘Anti-Access and Area Denial’ environments, places where the defenses are too dangerous for aircraft to approach.

– National Interest – James Holmes writes that it will take more than a lone bomber mission from afar—no matter how impressive—to rattle Moscow’s complacency.

– Military.com – The Air Force’s B-1B Lancer bomber is about to move front and center in the U.S. military’s power-projection mission in the Pacific.

– War Zone – In what is a massive milestone for Boeing and potentially for unmanned aerial combat systems as a whole, the company officially rolled out the first of three pre-production unmanned teaming aircraft, which is the central component of a total system called the Airpower Teaming System.