Naftaly muneneThe leader of the House Armed Services Committee said Tuesday the Space Force needs to grow in size to overcome increasing threats from China and Russia.
Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., was a key player in establishing the Space Force five years ago. At the time, he and others in Congress advocated for a small, agile force that could quickly establish the processes and organizations needed to get the service up and running.
“We’ve come a long way since those early tasks,” Rogers said Tuesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “Now, it’s time to increase the size of the Space Force to meet growing threats.”
Rogers didn’t specify to what extent he thinks the service needs to expand.
Acknowledging that many lawmakers do not support a major increase in overhead, he noted that he’s not calling for a “wholesale” end strength increase. Yes, Congress should approve more general officers, he said, but the A..
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PARIS — The Netherlands Ministry of Defence is investing in steel to defend NATO’s eastern flank. That means adding tanks and armored vehicles, but also expanding a fleet of railway wagons that allows Dutch military planners to rush armor and supplies across Europe.
The ministry’s Joint Support Command received 75 new wagons in December and January, a 20% increase of its fleet. That makes the Dutch less reliant on commercial providers, and shortens reaction times should troops need to deploy in anger, Defence Movement and Transport Organisation (DVVO) Commander Col. Merlijn Heiligers told Defense News.
As NATO has stepped up exercises and deployments in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there’s renewed emphasis on the role of rail to rapidly move combat forces in support of alliance members. Yet European armies looking to rent wagons face scarcity on rising demand and the legacy of falling spending on military rail after the Cold War – someth.. -
The U.S. Space Force is on track to field its first batch of a new ground-based satellite communications jammer in the coming months — designed to disrupt signals from enemy spacecraft.
Space Operations Command just approved the Remote Modular Terminals for initial fielding, a spokesperson told Defense News Wednesday, adding that the jammers will be in the hands of military users imminently.
The Space Force plans to field 11 systems as part of the first release, giving units a chance to use the system before it’s accepted for operations. The program has funding to build around 160, and the service expects to need as many as 200 in the coming years.
The Space Rapid Capabilities Office, a fast-moving acquisition team based at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, is the lead for the RMT program. Space RCO Director Kelly Hammett told reporters last week the small, modular terminals are designed toblock adversary communications from satellites that are surveilling U.S. and all.. -
The leader of U.S. Space Operations Command is hopeful the Space Force can meet its goal of delivering a command-and-control platform that allows operators to see a common picture of the domain by the end of next year.
The software for that baseline capability,known as the Advanced Tracking and Launch Analysis System, or ATLAS, is being developed by L3Harris and is in the final stages of testing.
Lt. Gen. David Miller, who leads Space Operations Command, told reporters that while he knows delivering that system is a “big lift,” having a single platform that units can use to train, plan and fight from is at the top of his must-have list.
“That’s where I’d like to be in 2025,” he told reporters earlier this month at the Spacepower Conference in Orlando, Florida. “I want to be done with it, I’ll be honest with you. I’m impatient.”
ATLAS will provide the foundational software for a broader modernization program known as Space Com.. -
When Congress authorized the creation of the Space Force in December of 2019, the service’s leadership viewed its small size as an asset.
Gen. Jay Raymond, its inaugural chief of space operations, likened the newest military branch to a startup company, telling lawmakers the service would leverage its size to move fast and stay nimble.
“We are establishing a Space Force that is lean, agile and mission-focused,” Raymond said in a March 2020 House Armed Services Committee hearing.
Since then, the service’s budget hasdoubled to around $30 billion in fiscal 2025, and today’s leaders have called for even more resources in the coming years to strengthen the military’s defenses against adversaries in space, build an arsenal of offensive-capable systems and take on new missions.
“That budget is going to need to double or triple over time to be able to fund the things we’re actually going to need to have,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told Defense .. -
Japan has ordered 17 of the latest variant of the Boeing-manufactured CH-47 Chinook cargo helicopter, the company said Thursday.
The CH-47 Block II Chinook is an extended-range version of the aircraft that is used by the U.S. Army and U.S. Special Operations Command. Japan is the fourth customer for the new variant.
Germany purchased 60 of the helicopters in a$4 billion deal in 2022, and the U.K. finalized its deal for 14 Chinooks in early 2024.
The CH-47s will be co-produced by Boeing and Kawasaki Heavy Industries. The Japanese company similarly provided elements for the CH-47 JA helicopters.
The helicopters purchased for the Japan Self-Defense Forces will replace some of its CH-47 JA aircraft, which were purchased in the 1980s and delivered by the early 2000s. The helicopters have been used, for example, to respond to the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in 2011, with special lead plates attached to the floor to protect the crew from radiation exposure. The aircraft collected o.. -
York Space Systems and SpaceX, two companiesbuilding satellites for the Space Development Agency’s megaconstellation, recently demonstrated the ability to connect two of their on-orbit spacecraft through a laser link.
During the demonstration, York linked one of the communication satellites it built for the first iteration of SDA’s constellation with a SpaceX missile tracking satellite. The laser communication links the companies used allow the satellites to transmit information quickly and securely.
The milestone is significant for the firms and for SDA, which is trying to establish a low-Earth orbit network of missile tracking and data transport satellites built by a diverse pool of suppliers. Connecting different satellites within the network is a key step toward proving that the technology works.
“By enabling seamless communication across platforms, this approach ensures interoperability, enhances a competitive marketplace and fosters innovation across the entire space .. -
RTX and Lockheed Martin are heading into flight tests this year in a head-to-head competition to develop a replacement for the U.S. Army’s Stinger missile.
The Army is pursuing a Stinger missile replacement for short-range air defense that can go faster, survive jamming and more easily hit tougher targets like drones.
The service awarded RTX and Lockheed Martin with contracts to competitively develop the Stinger replacement in September 2023. The RTX-manufactured Stinger missiles are currently used in the Army’s interim Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense, or MSHORAD, system and also in a man-portable configuration to provide air defense.
The Army has long planned to pursue a next-generation interceptor for short-range air defense, but the effort has become paramount as Stinger missiles were sent to Ukraine in response to Russia’s invasion of the country.
The service no longer builds new Stinger missiles, but it refurbishes old ones. To replenish its own stockpile, the Army wo.. -
The construction of four new solid rocket motor production facilities has begun at L3Harris’ Aerojet Rocketdyne campus in Camden, Arkansas, with a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday, the company announced.
The new facilities are part of a $215.6 million Defense Production Act program agreement between the Defense Department and L3Harris to increase rocket propulsion manufacturing capacity in the continental U.S. to keep pace with the rising global demand for tactical and strategic missile production.
“Expanding solid rocket motor production in Arkansas is a strategic investment in our nation’s security at a time when defense and deterrence are increasingly critical on the global stage,” Ken Bedingfield, president of L3Harris’ Aerojet Rocketdyne, said. “L3Harris is committed to ramping up production to support the defense of our nation, its allies and partners.”
Key production will be centralized under one 60,000-square foot, “state-of-the-art&rdq.. -
DONETSK REGION, Ukraine (AP) — The Ukrainian intelligence soldier doesn’t know how long his clinical death lasted after an explosive detonated beneath him.
All Andrii Rubliuk remembers is overwhelming cold, darkness and fear. When he regained consciousness in his shattered body — missing both arms and his left leg — excruciating pain engulfed him, and hallucinations clouded his mind.
“It’s an experience you wouldn’t wish on anyone,” the now 38-year-old says.
Two years later, Rubliuk is again dressed in military fatigues, his missing limbs replaced by prosthetics — hooks in place of fingers, one leg firmly planted on an artificial limb.
From the moment of the explosion, Rubliuk knew his life had changed forever. But one thing was certain — he vowed to return to the battlefield.
“Fighting with arms and legs is something anyone can do. Fighting without them — that’s a challenge,” he says. “But only t..
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