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A new Type 052D guided missile destroyer, the Xigaze, has made its public debut with its first training exercise since entering service in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, completed combat-oriented training including joint maritime search, rescue and replenishment-at-sea, and special situation disposal training including ship damage control. Exercises were conducted jointly one the new Type 055 class destroyer Anqing, a larger type of ship which integrates many of the same technologies and the same weaponry and vertical launch system as the Type 052D class.

The U.S. Air Force has surged the operational tempo of E-3 Sentry airborne early warning and control systems (AWACS) over the Middle East, with the aircraft reported to have been flying in unprecedented density over Jordan, northern Saudi Arabia, southern Iraq, and the eastern Mediterranean. The AWACS are reportedly being relied on to provide a persistent detection capability against Iranian drones and missiles being fired at targets in Jordan and Israel, to compensate for the destruction of much of the network of high value ground-based radars.

An Iranian-aligned Iraqi paramiltiary group, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, has claimed responsibility for two successful surface-to-air attacks on U.S. Air Force KC-135 tankers that were overlaying Iraqi airspace. This occurred as attacks on Western forces within Iraq, including U.S. and Italian military bases, have escalated as part of the ongoing U.S.-Iranian war. The U.S. Armed Forces Central Command confirmed the loss of a KC-135, attributing it to a technical issue, while the second KC-135 targeted reportedly managed to land in Israel after sustaining damage. With U.S.

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A U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker supporting Operation Epic Fury against Iran crashed in western Iraq after a refueling incident involving two aircraft March 12, U.S. Central Command announced.
“The incident occurred in friendly airspace during Operation Epic Fury, and rescue efforts are ongoing,” CENTCOM said in a statement. “Two aircraft were involved in the incident. One of the aircraft went down in western Iraq, and the second landed safely. This was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire.”
It is unclear if there are casualties. U.S.

A U.S. KC-135 aerial tanker has gone down over western Iraq, military officials announced Thursday. Rescue efforts are ongoing, according to a brief news release from U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM.
The incident took place in uncontested airspace while it was flying in support of the ongoing U.S. military operations against Iran that began on Feb. 28, the news release says.
“Two aircraft were involved in the incident,” the news release says. “One of the aircraft went down in western Iraq, and the second landed safely. This was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire.

The Army’s top officer focused on networks said the service is standing up a new data operations center that will better manage the massive quantity of information the modern military has accumulated — from the top, down to the field. 
Lt. Gen. Jeth Rey, deputy chief of staff for the G-6, called the Army Data Operation Center a “new and bold” venture for the service during a cyber webinar Thursday. Rey said the military does not have an issue with data itself, but “what we have is a data management problem,” and the new center aims to fix that.

NATO is reshaping its integrated plans for defending alliance territory against drones, ballistic missiles, and other aerial threats, according to Gen. Alex Grynkewich, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe and commander of U.S. European Command.
Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Grynkewich and Gen. Randall Reed, who leads U.S. Transportation Command, shared new details about those and other adjustments the joint force and its allies are making to implement lessons emerging from modern military conflicts erupting in different regions around the world.

In response to findings from the Government Accountability Office, a senior Pentagon official said the department plans to evaluate and define outside variables that could hinder the defense industry’s ability to comply with new standards set by the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification 2.0 model.
According to a study published by the GAO on Thursday, the Defense Department has done significant work to build a comprehensive strategy for implementing CMMC 2.0 cybersecurity standards.

Veterans say that the Department of Veterans Affairs has “invented new reasons to deny” former service members access to GI Bill benefits that many veterans qualify for, according to a new lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed by veterans, advocacy groups, and the State of Virginia, alleges that the VA has blocked eligible veterans from using two GI Bills to pay for undergraduate and graduate degrees.

In 2002, the U.S. military tapped Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper to lead the opposing forces in the most expensive and expansive military exercise in history up until that point. He was put in command of an inferior Middle Eastern-inspired military force—essentially a fictional Iran—and his mission was to go against the full might of the American armed forces.
In the first two days, he sank an entire carrier battle group. In fact, he had achieved such great success so fast that it prompted the U.S. military brass to cry foul.