Tag: usaf

Drone Swarms are Flying Circles Around the U.S. Government Inter-Agency Process

Establishing a trendline means having at least three data points.  Now we have three data points in drone incursions against U.S. military facilities.

During December 2023 we had 17 days of unrelenting, unchallenged drone swarms over the largest cluster of military facilities in the world, the Hampton Roads/Virginia Beach region of Virginia.

Then starting on November 18, 2024, drone swarms started visiting Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, approximately 35 miles to the west of New Jersey.  Picatinny is the DOD center for small arms and ammunition.

Now, the three core U.S. Air Force facilities in Europe, Royal Air Force (RAF) Stations Lakenheath, Mildenhall, and Feltwell have experienced drone swarms.  One note – it is a long-standing clause of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) that these are called RAF vice U.S. Air Force Bases.

Keep reading

‘People’s Arms Embargo’ at Travis Air Force Base

Seventy-five protesters gathered under threatening skies at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California at 6:30 am on Wednesday, November 20. Their mission: to speak out and briefly interrupt the shipment of weapons to Israel from this air base.

For 90 minutes, they showed banners such as “Stop Arms for War Crimes” and “Stop Travis: No US Weapons for Genocide. ” They delayed traffic on the busy six-lane roadway into the base by frequently pressing the button to allow pedestrian crossing.  Fliers were handed out to receptive drivers. The flyers asked “Why are we blocking access to Travis Air Base and messing up your day?”.  It was explained that while November 20 is World Children’s Day, weapons to Israel from Travis are being used to kill children. Bombs loaded onto planes at Travis and other US air bases have killed many thousands of children.

David Vidmar grew up on Travis Air Base. He said, “I am participating in the People’s Arms Embargo to honor my father as he would have been sickened by the indiscriminate targeting, slaughter and starvation of Gazan children and women in Israel’s genocide.”

Keep reading

US Air Force’s Election-Night ICBM Test

While everyone’s attention will be on who the next U.S. president will be, the U.S. Air Force will test-launch an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) with a dummy hydrogen bomb on the tip from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. 

The missile will cross the Pacific Ocean and 22 minutes later crash into the Marshall Islands. 

The U.S. Air Force does this several times a year. The launches are always at night while Americans are sleeping. 

This is what nightmares are made of. Between 1946 and 1958 the U.S. detonated 67 nuclear bombs in the Marshall Islands, and the result is that the Marshallese people have lost their pristine environment and face serious health problems. 

The environment around Vandenberg is threatened as well. Not only did the indigenous Chumash people lose their sacred land to Vandenberg Air Force Base, but also America’s Heartland presently has around 400 ICBMs stored in underground silos equipped with nuclear warheads that are ready to launch at a hair trigger’s notice. Named “MinuteMen III,” after Revolutionary War soldiers who could reload and shoot a gun in less than a minute, ICBMs not only put Americans at risk of accident, but they put all life on Earth in danger. 

Keep reading

The swarm of UFOs caught on video near US Air Force base by dozens of stunned onlookers

An Air Force base in Indiana has become the latest hotspot for mysterious UFOs after residents spotted swarms of fast-moving, glowing orbs in the skies.

Dozens of people in Kokomo, which sits just 13 miles south of Grissom Joint Air Reserve Base, reported seeing hovering flickering lights that vanished into thin air.

‘What is that,’ shouted one local who filmed the lights. ‘I think those are UFOs and I really don’t feel comfortable going to sleep tonight.’ 

The uncanny sightings, most reported on October 7, echo recent UFO waves near military sites, including Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia where officials reported seeing ‘flashing red, green, and white lights’ that were ‘moving at rapid speeds.’

The mysterious objects in Indiana, however, were shared by civilians online, where experts have weighed in to determine the source.

Some suggested the lights were flares dropped from planes, possibly military craft — but one witness shared doppler weather radar evidence of a ‘huge rectangle’ UFO with a ‘clearly defined vapor shock wave’ seen the morning after, October 8. 

Keep reading

Protective Nets To Shield F-22s Eyed For Airbase Swarmed By Mystery Drones

U.S. Air Force officials at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia are looking at installing anti-drone nets to help protect F-22 Raptor stealth fighters on the flightline. This comes nearly a year after the base was subjected to waves of still-mysterious drone incursions, which The War Zone was first to report. It also underscores the U.S. military’s continued lag when it comes to responding to the very real threats posed by uncrewed aerial systems, at home and aboard, and particular hurdles to doing so domestically.

Langley’s 633rd Contracting Squadron put out a notice on October 4 asking for information about potential counter-drone netting that could be installed around up to 42 existing open-ended sunshade-type shelters at the base. Langley, now technically part of Joint Base Langley-Eustis, is one of a select few bases to host F-22s and is a key component of the Air Force’s posture to defend the U.S. homeland.

The 633rd “is in the process of determining the acquisition strategy to obtain non-personal services for the Unmanned Ariel Services (UAS) Netting for East Ramp Metal Sunshades,” according to the contracting notice. “The intention of the netting is to deter and ultimately prevent the intrusion of UAS’s near airmen and aircraft. This initial sunshade netting installation on the metal sunshade (bay Alpha 1) shall serve as a proof of concept for the remaining sunshades.”

The “netting should be capable of disabling a Group 1/ “Small” Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), such as the DJI Matrice 300 RTK, while remaining attached,” the notice explains. Per the U.S. military’s definitions, drones in Group 1 can have weights of up to 20 pounds, fly up to 1,200 feet, and reach speeds of up to 100 knots.

Keep reading

Problem Plagued Sentinel ICBM Program Will Press Ahead Despite Nearly Doubling In Cost

The U.S. Air Force is pushing ahead with its struggling Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program despite a new projected price tag of nearly $141 billion, close to twice the original estimate, and now years of expected delays. The Pentagon says it has assessed that there are no lower-cost, but similarly capable alternatives to Sentinel, which is expected to replace the existing Minuteman III ICBM as one of the three legs of America’s nuclear deterrent triad.

The Office of the Secretary of Defense announced the results of an official review of the Sentinel program today. By law, per what is commonly referred to as the Nunn-McCurdy Amendment, defense programs that see certain levels of extreme cost growth must be canceled unless various criteria are met. Sentinel’s rising price point triggered a breach of the Nunn-McCurdy statute in January. The Air Force also sacked the top officer in charge of the program last month, but said this was “not directly related to the Nunn-McCurdy review,” according to Defense One.

The Air Force currently has some 400 LGM-30G Minuteman IIIs deployed in silos spread across five states.

Keep reading

US Air Force Veteran Charged With Disclosing Classified Military Information

A U.S. Air Force veteran was arrested on June 27 for allegedly disclosing classified information on military aircraft and weapons to unauthorized people, according to an unsealed indictment.

Paul J. Freeman, of Niceville, Florida, was indicted by a federal grand jury for unauthorized possession and transmission of classified national defense information following his initial appearance in federal court, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a release.

The 68-year-old allegedly disclosed sensitive information on U.S. Air Force aircraft and weapons to unauthorized people between November 2020 and March 2021, the DOJ said.

According to the indictment, the information that Mr. Freeman possessed and disclosed pertained to the “vulnerabilities” of military aircraft and weapons systems.

Prosecutors argued that Mr. Freeman “had reason to believe [the information] could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation.”

The indictment states that in February 2021 Mr. Freeman allegedly “willfully communicated, delivered, and transmitted” the information to “persons not entitled to receive it.”

Keep reading

U.S. Airbase Authorizes Troops To Wear LGBT ‘Pride Patch’ Alongside Real Badges Of Honor

The latest example of the politicization of the military under the Biden administration (and there are many) has been revealed by Stars and Stripes. It reports that the commander of the Osan Air Force base in South Korea has authorized troops on the base to wear a “pride morale patch” on their military uniforms, in public and while on duty.

Insignia and patches on a soldier’s uniform used to serve the purpose of telling you something about the military qualifications and experience of the soldier. They now can also signal whether a soldier ascribes to the Democrat Party’s current political trends.

The patches, badges, and ribbons on a soldier’s uniform can tell you a lot about the person, including their current assignment, the unit they served with in combat, their time in service and in overseas deployments in a combat theater, campaigns in which they have served, and sometimes their performance in combat.

The patches and badges are not just informative, they are sources of immense pride in military assignments and achievements. For example, soldiers take great pride in being assigned to an elite unit, such as the Ranger Regiment, Special Forces, or the 82d Airborne, and proudly wear their patches or insignia on their uniforms. When you see a soldier proudly wearing a Ranger scroll as the patch on his right shoulder, you know he has served in combat with one of the most elite military units in the world.

The Combat Infantryman’s badge, known as a “CIB,” is also a prestigious and coveted award that veterans of infantry combat wear proudly.

In short, these and other insignia, patches, and ribbons on a soldier’s uniform are like a biography of his military career and accomplishments. They tell you who he is, where he’s been, and what he’s done. And although they are not called “pride” patches or insignia, they are worn with pride in what they represent.

Keep reading

Dismissing Tom Clancy’s Fanboy Generals In the USAF

In his foreword to Tom Clancy’s book Fighter Wing: A Guided Tour of an Air Force Combat Wing, updated in 2004, a retired USAF general named John M. Loh writes: “This book chronicles the creation of a command with a unique culture – the U.S. Air Force Air Combat Command. It possesses the leadership, the combat power, and the highly trained, competent people to provide the world’s best combat air forces anywhere in the world, at any time, to win quickly, decisively, with overwhelming advantage and few casualties. Tom Clancy does a masterful job of telling us all about it. I am proud to have served as the first commander of Air Combat Command, and proud to commend this book to your reading pleasure.” (Location 226)

Not only does the general validate Clancy’s outrageous claims about USAF pilots being the finest in the world, as one would expect from those who have both been thoroughly indoctrinated in the myth of American aerial supremacy, it just shows that the USAF liked Clancy because he published propaganda books that served their interests.

For those who have followed my writing career as a military reformer, you know that Tom Clancy sticks in my craw, and I am always keen to rebut his arguments, which never contain footnotes, or any documentation other than the words of defense contractors.

Although Clancy is no longer with us, General Loh still is, and I would like to offer the following news to him and other Clancy fanboys and ask them to possibly reconsider their bragging. In previous articles and my book I have argued that smaller air forces, such as the Royal Air Force, the Royal Australian Air Force, and the Royal Canadian Air Force have outstanding reputations, with pilot selection and training standards that are higher than the USAF.

Keep reading

U-2 Retirement Reprieve Emerges In Proposed Defense Spending Bill

Members of Congress are moving to prevent the U.S. Air Force from retiring its fleet of iconic U-2 Dragon Lady spy planes. The Pentagon approved a waiver last year that had cleared the way for the service to begin divesting the high-flying Cold War-era jets, which The War Zone was first to report. The Air Force’s current plan is to divest the last of the U-2s in 2026 and supplant them with a mix of still largely undefined space-based and other capabilities, which is widely believed to include a classified stealthy high-altitude drone.

The House Appropriations Committee released a draft of the annual defense spending bill for the upcoming 2025 Fiscal Year earlier today. It includes a provision that, should the bill become law, would explicitly and without exception prevent “funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act” from being “used to divest or prepare to divest any U-2 aircraft.”

As of the start of Fiscal Year 2024, the Air Force had 31 U-2s in its inventory, including a trio of two-seat TU-2S trainers.

Until last year, the Air Force had been blocked from retiring any U-2s by provisions in annual defense policy bills, or National Defense Authorization Acts (NDAA), enacted in previous fiscal years. However, the earlier legislation had included a path to proceeding with retiring the venerable spy planes if the Pentagon could certify that certain stipulations had been met. Chief among these was the insistence that the resulting capability gap would be filled in a cost-effective manner. You can read more about this here.

“On October 30, 2023, the Secretary of Defense [Lloyd Austin] signed a waiver to divest the U-2 Dragon Lady in accordance with language in the FY 2021 NDAA waiver requirement. In signing the waiver, Secretary of Defense certified combatant commands will continue to be able to accomplish their missions at acceptable levels of risk,” an annual force structure report the Pentagon released in April further explains. “The ability to win future high-end conflicts requires accepting short-term risks by divesting legacy ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconniassance] assets that offer limited capability against peer and near-peer threats. The USAF will fleet-divest the remaining 31 U-2 aircraft starting October 1, 2026.”

Keep reading