DefenseNews

Gen. Jim Slife sworn in as Air Force vice chief of staff

January 4, 2024
Gen. Jim Slife stepped into the role of Air Force vice chief of staff at a Dec. 29 ceremony at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, ending the service’s three-month stretch without Senate-confirmed officers in its top two leadership posts. Slife’s assignment to the Air Force’s second-highest position is part of a wide-ranging shuffle of the branch’s top brass that began in the fall.
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DefenseNews

Army numbers smallest since WWII — what units face cuts in 2024?

December 29, 2023
The new year will likely prove to be one of significant force structure changes for the Army, according to its senior leaders. Although the service has maintained for years that embracing multidomain operations will require it to “transform” its force structure into one leaders believe is suited to tomorrow’s battlefield, back-to-back recruiting shortfalls led top officials to admit by…
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DefenseNews

Navy creates program office to manage nuclear carrier defuelings

November 30, 2023
ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy has established a new program office to plan and manage aircraft carrier inactivations, defuelings and dismantlements, as the service readies for that work to become more common. The Navy still hasn’t fully completed the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier it decommissioned: the former Enterprise was inactivated and defueled at HII’s Newport News…
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DefenseNews

Air Force awards Boeing $2.3B contract for 15 more KC-46s

November 29, 2023
WASHINGTON — The Air Force has awarded Boeing a $2.3 billion contract for 15 more KC-46A Pegasus refueling tankers. The award, announced by the Pentagon Tuesday evening, brings to 153 the number of KC-46s Boeing has on contract to build for the United States and allies.
DefenseNews

Northrop exit from UK satellite bid recasts big-ticket Skynet 6 race

November 29, 2023
LONDON — Defense contractors have been given until March next year to submit bids to provide the U.K. military with a new generation of wideband communication satellites as part of the Ministry of Defence’s Skynet 6 program. Procurement officials for Skynet 6 released an invitation earlier this month to Airbus Defence and Space, Lockheed Martin and Thales Alenia Space with instructions to…
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