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U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Robert M. Trujillo / Tyler Schlitt Photography / LiveStormChasers.com

The U.S. Air Force’s U-2S Dragon Lady spy planes were among the assets tapped to monitor and collect intelligence on a Chinese government surveillance balloon during its recent trip across parts of the continental United States and Canada. An F-22 Raptor stealth fighter finally shot down the balloon with an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday, and efforts are now underway to recover the wreckage from the Atlantic Ocean.

Frank Luke Jr. who received the Medal of Honor for shooting down 14 German balloons during World War I (Task & Purpose image).

The saga of that Chinese spy balloon floating across the continental United States at an altitude of about 60,000 feet came to an end over the weekend after a pair of F-22 Raptors from the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia sent the balloon plummeting into the ocean with a single AIM-9X Sidewinder missile.

The Pentagon’s chief weapons tester assessed U.S. Cyber Command’s capability portfolio concept does not have a dedicated operational test and evaluation planned or resourced, potentially limiting future capability integration.
“The Joint Cyber Warfighting Architecture (JCWA) concept continues to mature; however, no dedicated JCWA-level operational test and evaluation (OT&E) is currently planned or resourced, despite aggressive efforts to field critical components of the architecture.

On Saturday, an American F-22 shot down the Chinese balloon that captured America’s attention, but rumors are still flying high.
The post Chinese spy balloon: Answering all your questions (and dispelling the myths) appeared first on Sandboxx.

Francis P.

After crossing the Aleutian Islands and the entire continental United States, the Chinese balloon was finally brought down by U.S. fighter aircraft off the coast of South Carolina. According to U.S. officials, the balloon was flying over the country to collect intelligence on sensitive American military sites.  F-22 Raptor fighter jets flying from Joint Base […]
The post China insists that its balloon was not spying as US launches recovery operation appeared first on Sandboxx.

The proposed merger between L3Harris and Aerojet Rocketdyne has attracted significant opposition from some US Senators, some of whom have written to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to urge them to block the deal under anti-trust rules. This comes on the heels of Lockheed Martin’s abandoned attempt to purchase Aerojet Rocketdyne after opposition from the FTC. Ongoing scrutiny of defense industry consolidation has seen the number of defense primes in the US fall from 51 in the 1990s to just five in 2023 (Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Raytheon and General Dynamics).

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has launched a new policy paper ‘Cloud Strategic Roadmap for Defence’, which is designed to help drive and accelerate a digital future.
The roadmap outlines the ways and means to adopt advanced Cloud platforms and realise the Digital Backbone and Data Strategy for Defence.
According to the paper, the Cloud will provide the foundation to develop and deliver the future digital capability required for defence users. It will improve user experience both within the enterprise and at the tactical edge.

Iranian Drones

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While the U.S. and Europe have joined forces in an effort to target putting sanctions on Iranian-made drones that are being shipped to Russia, Iran and Russia have agreed to establish a joint drone manufacturing facility in Russia, according to a weekend report from Wall Street Journal.
Iran has been supplying Russia with its kamikaze drones, including the Shahed-136, which Moscow has been using to launch persistent strikes on Ukraine’s infrastructure.

A Beechcraft T-44C Pegasus, pictured in 2021. (US Navy)
The US Navy (USN) has selected the Textron King Air 260 to replace the Beechcraft King Air 90 (designated T-44 Pegasus) multi-engine trainer. The initial contract award announced on 25 January orders 10 T-54s for USD113 million, with options for up to 64 of the aircraft, which will be designated T-54A Multi Engine Training System (METS).

Deliveries are expected to run from 2024 through 2026. T-44 retirements will begin six months after the first T-54 delivery, the USN told
Janes
.