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☆ Bombing of herders highlights deadly air attacks by Nigerian military
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +19 min

The letter said the Nigerian Air Force is committed to human rights and “further deliberations” on the issue, according to the report. “The absence of details raises the question of whether the air force carried out the air strike based on mere suspicion,” Human Rights Watch said. The U.S. State Department and the Pentagon had no immediate comment about the airstrike or the U.S. relationship with the Nigerian Air Force. Before now, neither the Nigerian government nor the military had provided any public explanation for what happened on Jan. 24. ACLED data show Nigerian Air Force strikes continued to claim the lives of noncombatants, inside and outside the northeast.

Persons: Ibrahim Muazu, “, ACLED, D.D, Pwajok, ”, Sara Jacobs, herdsmen, Oladayo Amao, Amao, “ miscreants, Muhammadu Buhari, Bola Tinubu, Jan, Muazu, Lamido, Nigeria’s, Sanusi, Buhari, Rand Paul, Cory Booker, Rex Tillerson, Lai Mohammed, Jacobs, Jim Risch, Chris Smith, Antony Blinken, Biden, Risch, brazenly “, ” Abubakar Bello Rukubi, ” “, Yemi Osinbajo, cc’d, Samuel Ortom, herder, ” Muazu, Humeyra Pamuk, Daphne Psaledakis, Idrees Ali, Jarrett Renshaw, David Lewis, Reade Levinson, Simon Newman, Catherine Tai Design, Eve Watling, Julie Marquis, Alexandra Zavis Organizations: herder, Reuters, Air Force, Nigerian Air Force, Human Rights Watch, Air, Rights Watch, Ministry of Defence, Nigerian Air, House Foreign Affairs, ” Reuters, ACLED, Planet Labs PBC, U.S . State Department, Pentagon, ”, Muazu, Congress, San Frontieres, Republican, Punch, UK, Nigeria –, Systems, U.S, Super, International, Development, Rights Initiative, Benue State Livestock Guards, Human Rights, Daily Trust, Nigeria’s Locations: Nigerian, Nasarawa, Akwanaja, United States, U.S, Nigeria, California, Kano, Rann, Cameroonian, Zamfara, “, Benue, ” Benue, London, Makurdi, Naka, Washington, Philadelphia

☆ Defense personnel alarmed after memos reveal Air Force leadership warned about accused Pentagon leaker but let him continue working
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Haley Britzky Sean Lyngaas Zachary Cohen Natasha Bertrand | Haley Britzky | Sean Lyngaas | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Teixeira was arrested on April 14 and has been charged under the Espionage Act with unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information and unauthorized removal of classified information and defense materials. His defense lawyers have argued he didn’t expect classified information that he posted on Discord to be further spread around the internet. According to one current US service member who handles classified intelligence, the memos read as if Teixeira’s leadership was building a case for disciplinary action against him. Jobs under the 1N0 and 1N4 job codes would have given him more hands-on responsibilities with intelligence, the current service member and a former enlisted intelligence airman told CNN. But the current service member said it would not be unusual for senior non-commissioned officers to handle disciplinary matters with a junior enlisted airman like Teixeira.

☆ As US military recruitment dips, elite Air Force demo pilots seek to be ‘beacon of excellence’
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( Haley Britzky | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Hampton, Va. CNN —In a small conference room just off a runway at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, some of the US Air Force’s most elite F-16 pilots were gathered. This year marks the team’s 70th anniversary – it was established in 1953, six years after the Air Force split from the Army and became its own service. A US Air Force Thunderbird F-16D Fighting Falcon flies overhead. US Air Force Thunderbird F-16D Fighting Falcons fly in a diamond formation. Anthony Nin Leclerec/US Air ForceBut Grindstaff, like so many throughout the military, said the Air Force seemed like it would provide him a pathway to more opportunities in life.

☆ Air Force Plans Special Operations Mission for Arizona Base Set to Lose Aging Attack Planes
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Daniel Nasaw | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Air Force has been trying for years to phase out A-10 Warthog attack jets, including those at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona. Photo: Ash Ponders for The Wall Street JournalWASHINGTON—The Air Force plans to establish a new special-operations wing at an Arizona base threatened by the looming retirement of its aging A-10 attack jets, a shift that illustrates the pressure Congress exerts on the Pentagon to maintain local jobs and federal funding as the U.S. modernizes its military. The A-10 Warthogs, lauded for their role saving ground troops in firefights over 20 years of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, are ill-suited for wars of the future, defense officials say. But for a decade, Congress has limited the Air Force’s authority to retire the Warthogs, out of deference to representatives and senators whose constituencies stood to lose if the planes were scrapped.

☆ My grandfather hid the emotional toll of World War II from his family for decades
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Chloe Melas | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

CNN —For decades after returning home from World War II, my grandfather did not talk about his wartime experiences. Frank Murphy, the grandfather of CNN's Chloe Melas, after he was captured and taken a prisoner of war by the Nazis in 1943. Everyone could see the physical toll of war on his body, but we didn’t know about his invisible wounds. After World War I, it was “shell shock”; post-World War II it was known as “combat fatigue,” and after Vietnam it was called “post-Vietnam syndrome.” In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association officially recognized it as post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. “When your grandfather and my grandfather served in World War II, they didn’t talk about it,” Paul Rieckhoff, founder and CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, told me.

☆ Air National Guard Plays Outsize Role in Air Force Drone Strikes, Military Data Show
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Ben Kesling | Michael R. Gordon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Air National Guard, at the center of an investigation into the leak of highly classified documents, has moved over two decades to the forefront of military operations, analyzing much of the intelligence for drone strikes and carrying out many of those missions. The Guard, which was once viewed as largely a strategic reserve force, now provides half of the Air Force’s targeting analysis, according to data provided by officials to The Wall Street Journal.

☆ Jack Teixeira: Accused Pentagon leaker's violent rhetoric raises fresh questions about top secret vetting process
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Natasha Bertrand Sean Lyngaas Zachary Cohen Haley Britzky | Natasha Bertrand | Sean Lyngaas | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

But that didn’t stop the Pentagon from granting a top-secret security clearance to Jack Teixeira, who prosecutors say had an arsenal of weapons at home and a history of violent online rhetoric. And the Air Force’s Inspector General investigation is specifically examining the Pentagon’s vetting process and whether any procedures were violated or ignored, Pentagon officials said. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters on Thursday that when vetting someone for a security clearance, the adjudicator examines “a sufficient period” in someone’s life to determine if they are eligible. That program – largely run by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) – aims to continuously vet security clearance holders for warning signs than periodically investigate them every five to 10 years. “Social media is a new world that the government really hasn’t gotten ahold of yet,” said Brad Moss, a lawyer who specializes in national security and security clearance law.

☆ India approves purchase of military equipment worth $8.5 bln
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] An armed soldier stands guard outside India's Defence Ministry building in New Delhi, India, February 27, 2019. REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis/File PhotoNEW DELHI, March 16 (Reuters) - India on Thursday approved purchases of missiles, helicopters, artillery guns and electronic warfare systems worth $8.5 billion as it sought to add more teeth to its military. The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), the top government body for capital acquisition approvals for the Indian military, approved the orders worth 705 billion rupees ($8.52 billion) for all its services, the Defence Ministry said in a statement. The list of purchases approved included 200 additional BrahMos missiles, 50 utility helicopters and electronic warfare systems for the navy. All three Indian military services have been using versions of the missile for over a decade.

☆ To Counter China, U.S. and Allies Seek to Make Militaries ‘Interchangeable’
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( Mike Cherney | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A U.S. Marine and an Australian soldier taking part in an exercise in Townsville, Australia. When the top general for the U.S. Air Force in the Pacific traveled overseas recently to meet with U.S. allies, responsibility for 46,000 personnel across the region fell to an unusual second-in-command: an air vice-marshal from the Australian air force. The Australian officer was appointed recently to be one of two deputy commanders for the U.S. Air Force in the region at its base in Hawaii. Although it isn’t unusual for people from friendly nations to embed in the U.S. military, it is the first time an allied officer has held such a top operational role in the U.S. Air Force’s Pacific command.

☆ Pentagon Used Its Highest-End Fighter, Reliable Missile to Down Chinese Balloon
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-05 | by ( Doug Cameron | Michael R. Gordon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

One of two Air Force F-22 Raptors flying near the Chinese surveillance balloon just off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday before it was shot down. Pentagon officials faced a difficult task in bringing down the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon flying at high altitude and without endangering lives and property on the ground. They turned to the Air Force’s most advanced fighter jet and a well-tested missile to do it. To complete the mission, defense officials had to shoot down a craft that had been flying as high as 65,000 feet on its weeklong traverse of North America, above than the ceiling of most Air Force jets, and do it so that the debris would fall within the U.S. territorial waters off the coast, not international seas.

☆ Telling the Truth About Possible War Over Taiwan
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Honesty is not the default policy in Washington these days, so the political and media classes were jolted this weekend by the leak of a private warning by a U.S. general telling his troops to prepare for a possible war with China over Taiwan in two years. Imagine: A warrior telling his troops to be ready for war. In an internal memo leaked to NBC News, Gen. Michael Minihan told his troops: “I hope I am wrong. My gut tells me we will fight in 2025.” The general runs the Air Mobility Command, the Air Force’s tank-refueling operation, and he says in his memo that he wants his force to be “ready to fight and win in the first island chain” off the eastern coast of continental Asia. He called for taking more calculated risks in training.

Each new B-21 is pegged at roughly $729.25 million, and the U.S. Air Force expects to procure at least 100 of them. Factoring in inflation, it’s half the price of the exorbitantly expensive B-2 stealth bomber it’s meant to replace. Factoring in inflation, it’s half the price of the exorbitantly expensive B-2 stealth bomber it’s meant to replace. (China’s military grasps the benefit of long-range stealth bombers in the Pacific context and is developing its own Raider-like stealth bomber intended to expand its strike range.) That isn’t to say the Raider program should be written a blank check.

☆ Apollo 9 commander James McDivitt dies at 93
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

WASHINGTON — James A. McDivitt, who commanded the Apollo 9 mission testing the first complete set of equipment to go to the moon, has died. He passed on a chance to land on the moon and instead became the space agency’s program manager for five Apollo missions after the Apollo 11 moon landing. ... it was like cellophane and tin foil put together with Scotch tape and staples!”Unlike many of his fellow astronauts, McDivitt didn’t yearn to fly from childhood. McDivitt didn’t have money for college growing up in Kalamazoo, Michigan. “And being the second or third guy wasn’t that important to me.”So McDivitt went into management, first of the Apollo lunar lander, then for the Houston part of the entire program.

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