Tag: usaf

$20 Billion Price Tag To Complete Development Of USAF’s Next Generation Fighter

Agreater focus on long range strike capabilities is among the alternatives the U.S. Air Force is considering to a costly new crewed sixth-generation stealth combat jet as part of its Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) family of systems. A lower-cost design focused primarily on acting as a ‘quarterback’ for Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drones is also still on the table, as is just continuing with the original plan, where another $20 billion would be required just to complete the development process of the highly-advanced crewed tactical jet. The service has already announced that it is leaving it up to the incoming Trump administration to make the final decision on how to proceed, or not, based on the recommendations of a deep review of the program.

Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall offered additional details about alternatives to the original plan for a new sixth-generation NGAD combat jet during a talk the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank hosted today. Last year, the service announced it was putting work on the NGAD aircraft on hold and initiating a deep review of the program’s core requirements and objectives. That review is understood to be close to, if not completed.

“The Air Force [originally] wrote requirements for an aircraft that is essentially an F-22 replacement. And for the last few years, that’s what we’ve been working on,” Kendall said. “We’re now at the point where we commit to going forward, to finish design, and go into production of that, or not. And this is really the most important milestone for almost any program.”

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Startling image of mystery drone over US air base in UK revealed as bombshell report claims FBI has known about swarms over military sites for a year

Unauthorized drones have been zipping across US military bases at speeds of up to 170mph, easily dodging radar and signal-jamming systems.

But contrary to the non-answers intelligence officials have been dishing out as New Jersey residents panic about ‘car-sized’ drones flying over their homes for the past month, the government has been aware of this threat for over a year, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.

Exclusively obtained images show one craft photographed by specialist military units over a US airbase in England last month. DailyMail.com also obtained excerpts from a joint US Air Force, NASA and FBI report on previous airbase incursions, and an account from a senior officer briefed on the incidents. 

This news follows repeated widespread sightings of drones near military bases in New Jersey and other states over the past month.

And a public outcry over the swarms prompted a stunning admission from FBI chiefs to Congress – they don’t know where these craft are coming from.

DailyMail.com obtained an internal government report showing federal agencies knew about incursions from apparent advanced drones over a year ago but have failed to put a stop to them.

Langley Air Force Base in Virginia was swarmed with dozens of drones for weeks in December 2023, creating a security panic. The incident was kept secret until it was revealed by defense magazine The Warzone in March this year.

A report authored by the Air Force, FBI and NASA – which has a facility next to Langley air base – said that their ‘detection equipment’ and ‘signal jamming’ had ‘failed’, in a presentation slide titled ‘lessons learned,’ DailyMail.com can reveal.

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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.

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‘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.”

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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. 

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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