Military

Matthew Lohmeier, the former Space Force lieutenant colonel who was relieved of command after publicly blasting the military’s diversity programs and alleged Marxist ideology, was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday as the Air Force’s next undersecretary.
The 52-46 vote to approve Lohmeier was along party lines.
Lohmeier was fired from command of the 11th Space Warning Squadron at Buckley Air Force Base in Colorado in 2021 after appearing on a podcast to discuss his self-published book, “Irresistible Revolution: Marxism’s Goal of Conquest and the Unmaking of the American Military.”
During that podcast, Lohmeier decried diversity initiatives, critical race theory and Marxism, saying they were anti-American and divisive. He alleged those ideas were spreading through and weakening the military.
President Donald Trump tapped Lohmeier to be the second-highest civilian in the Department of the Air Force shortly before his inauguration in January, tasking him with changing ..

Air Force Global Strike Command has pulled Sig Sauer M18 pistols from use following the July 20 death of an airman at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming.
The airman was active-duty and assigned to the 90th Security Forces Squadron at the time of the fatal incident, the 90th Missile Wing confirmed this week. Further details, including the airman’s name and cause of death, are currently being withheld.
The service’s decision to withdraw the M18 pistol from use in the immediate aftermath of the airman’s death is pending an investigation by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, as well as a safety inspection of the handgun.
A leaked memo dated July 21 called for the M18 to be pulled from use “for all operational and training activities” immediately and replaced by the M-4 rifle until further notice. It also calls for “100% inspections of all Wing-assigned M18 weapons systems” by Combat Arms personnel.
The memo was confirmed as authentic by Charles Hoffman, an A..

PARIS — Turkey and the United Kingdom signed a memorandum of understanding on the export of Eurofighter Typhoon jets on Wednesday, bringing the government in Ankara a step closer to buying the multi-role fighter aircraft built by a consortium of four European countries.
Negotiations on the potential deal with Turkey will continue in coming weeks, the U.K. government said in a statement. While Turkey has been seeking to buy Eurofighter jets since 2023, talks had reportedly stumbled on German reluctance to grant an export license.
The bulk of the Turkish Air Force’s fighter fleet consists of aging F-16 jets, with the country suspended from the F-35 program after buying S-400 air-defense systems from Russia. While Turkey is developing its own fifth-generation KAAN stealth fighter, that jet is still in the prototype phase.
“Today’s agreement is a big step towards Turkey buying U.K. Typhoon fighter jets,” U.K. Defence Secretary John Healey said in a statement. ..

The crew of a B-52H Stratofortress that had a near-miss with a civilian airliner near Minot International Airport last Friday told air traffic control they were nearby, but were not informed a passenger jet was in the area, the Air Force said.
The passenger jet, flight 3788 from SkyWest Airlines, was on approach to land at the Minot airport the evening of July 18 when it had to veer sharply to avoid the B-52. Both planes ultimately landed safely. A passenger took video of the pilot’s explanation of what happened afterwards, which was widely shared online.
“Nobody told us about” the B-52 in the area, the pilot told passengers. “There’s no radar here. The tower does everything visually. … This is not normal at all, I don’t know why they didn’t give us a heads up, because the Air Force base does have radar, and nobody said, ‘Hey, there’s also a B-52 in the pattern.’”
A commercial airline pilot flying over North Dakot..

The U.S. Air Force recently conducted an exercise in which AI was used to recommend targets in a high-pressure combat scenario.
Called “Experiment 3,” the four-day exercise took place last month and was described in a service release as the debut of “a novel planning and execution methodology, one never before executed” by the Air Force.
The 805th Combat Training Squadron, also known as the Shadow Operations Center — Nellis battle lab, saw participants use AI software to accelerate their decision-making and targeting processes over four days in a simulated battle space.
“We’re not just testing software, we’re challenging assumptions, validating tactics and shaping the operational architecture the Air Force and our allies will rely on in future conflicts,” Lt. Col. Shawn Finney, commander of the 805th, said in a release. “This was a proving ground for the kill chain of tomorrow.”
The unprecedented exercise was designed to speed up ..

TOWNSVILLE, Australia — U.S. paratroopers made the most dramatic entrance possible to Australia during Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025. Flying 14.5 hours nonstop from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska, they parachuted from the night sky into the Australian countryside on July 14.
“We landed right on the X,” Col. Brian Weightman, commander of the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) of the U.S. Army’s 11th Airborne Division, told Defense News during an interview in Townsville.
The commander said he was the first to jump onto the drop zone.
In such a parachute operation, casualties of up to 10% are anticipated, he explained.
“We’re very comfortable with that if we land and 90% of the force is able to continue on,” Weightman said.
Luckily, this nighttime airdrop resulted in only three minor injuries, one of which was caused by a midair parachute entanglement in the dark.
Their 6,800-mile flight was only the beginning of the unit’..

WARSAW, Poland — As numerous Eastern European allies pursue acquisitions of infantry fighting vehicles, Romania and Poland are advancing plans to boost their tracked vehicle fleets, yet with different strategies towards foreign suppliers and technology transfers.
In Romania, the country’s government decided on July 10 to launch its much-awaited program to replace outdated Soviet-times MLI-84 tracked infantry fighting vehicles with new gear. Bucharest aims to purchase some 246 vehicles along with simulators and a logistics package over an eight-year period after a deal is signed, earmarking close to €2.55 billion ($2.96 billion) for this acquisition. In the program’s potential second stage, a further 52 vehicles could be ordered.
Local observers say Romanian Ministry of National Defence is to select between Germany’s Rheinmetall with the Lynx, the CV90 made by BAE Systems Hägglunds in Sweden, South Korea’s Hanwha with the AS21 Redback, and General..

The U.S. Army has picked Anduril to be the lead integrator to build its next-generation command-and-control prototype, or C2, awarding the tech company a $99.6 million contract to deliver it in less than a year, according to statements from the service and company.
The prototype architecture will consist of “integrated and scalable” C2 capabilities using hardware, software and applications through a common data layer, the Army stated in a July 18 announcement.
The Army’seffort to overhaul its command-and-control ecosystem, dubbed Next-Generation C2, is one of the top priorities for Army modernization — if not the highest.
The capability will be delivered to the 4th Infantry Division, the service said.
The prototype will be “integrated onto compute nodes aboard multiple different types of mechanized vehicles” throughout the Division immediately upon award of the contract, Anduril noted, and will be continuously developed working directly with soldiers.
The..

The U.S. Air Force and commercial airline SkyWest Airlines are trying to learn more about a July 18 incident in which a North Dakota-based B-52 Stratofortress may have had a near miss with a passenger plane.
SkyWest said in a statement to Air Force Times that its flight 3788 was flying from Minneapolis to Minot, North Dakota, on Friday evening. Air traffic controllers cleared flight 3788 to approach Minot International Airport for a landing when “another aircraft became visible in their flight path,” SkyWest said.
The commercial plane aborted the landing and circled above the airport, before landing safely at the airport, the airline’s statement said. SkyWest said the company is now investigating the incident.
An Air Force spokesperson confirmed a B-52 from Minot Air Force Base held a flyover of the North Dakota State Fair that evening, but stopped short of confirming the near miss happened or saying an investigation was underway.
“We are aware of the recent rep..