The U.S. lab led the three-hour sortie on July 25 with test units at the Eglin Test and Training Complex in Florida. The flight followed two years of work and a partnership with Skyborg Vanguard, a team made up of personnel from the lab and the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center with the intent of creating unmanned fighter aircraft.

“This sortie officially enables the ability to develop [artificial intelligence and machine learning] agents that will execute modern air-to-air and air-to-surface skills that are immediately transferrable to the CCA program,” said Col. Tucker Hamilton, the chief of AI test and operations with the Air Force. The CCA program, or collaborative combat aircraft, was designed to create combat drones that can operate with piloted aircraft.

The lab’s Autonomous Air Combat Operations team created algorithms for the flight that took millions of hours to mature in simulations, during sorties with the X-62 VISTA experimental aircraft, while working with the XQ-58A, and during ground test operations, according to the announcement.

Previous flights of the XQ-58A Valkyrie have supported the Air Force’s effort into loyal wingmen research. Kratos Defense and Security Solutions produces the drone.

The Air Force Research Lab is the service’s primary scientific research and development center responsible for the discovery, development and integration of cost-effective warfighting technologies for the country’s air, space and cyberspace forces.

“AI will be a critical element to future warfighting and the speed at which we’re going to have to understand the operational picture and make decisions,” Brig. Gen. Scott Cain, the lab’s commander, said in the announcement. “AI, Autonomous Operations, and Human-Machine Teaming continue to evolve at an unprecedented pace and we need the coordinated efforts of our government, academia, and industry partners to keep pace.”

The possible foreign military sale would see Germany receive up to 969 AIM-120C-8 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles and related equipment, according to a July 19 news release by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which notified Congress of the department’s approval.

The potential deal also includes AIM-120 training missiles, a telemetry kit, spare parts and transportation support, among “other related elements of logistical and program support.”

The agency said the possible sale will bolster the security of the NATO ally and promote political and economic stability in Europe. The release also noted the deal would improve Germany’s ability to face existing threats by ensuring the country has modern, capable air-to-air munitions.

The announcement comes amid Russia’s war in Ukraine, a neighbor of several NATO members, and days after NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg reiterated the alliance’s support for Kyiv.

Germany already operates AMRAAM weapons, the release read, and this possible sale “will further advance the already high level of German Air Force interoperability with U.S. joint forces and other regional and NATO forces.”

The missiles and defense business segment of RTX in Tucson, Arizona, will serve as the principal contractor.

The deal is not expected to adversely impact U.S. military readiness, according to the release.

If Congress does not reject the potential sale, it then goes into negotiations, during which dollar figures and quantities of equipment can change.

The facility is meant to provide technology research, development and manufacturing for the British military and other NATO customers. There are 680 employees working for the Israeli firm’s U.K.-based subsidiaries, and there are plans to hire more than 200 people to work at the new site.

During a ceremony marking the facility’s opening, the company demonstrated several capabilities, including electronic warfare technology. The U.K. awarded a £100 million contract to an industrial team that included Elbit for an electronic warfare system for the Royal Navy. The program, dubbed Maritime Electronic Warfare Systems Integrated Capability, or MEWSIC, Increment 1 is the first phase of a £500 million effort to bolster frigates and aircraft carriers.

Elbit also showed off a virtual combined-arms simulator; its Torch-X command-and-control technology; its E-Lynx radio system; a ground-based surveillance radar; nv33 night vision goggles, which are currently in service with British forces; and several miniature uncrewed systems in service and on trial with the British Armed Forces. The company did not identify the uncrewed platforms to Defense News by press time.

The U.K. awarded Elbit Systems a contract in January to provide the Army with Magni-X micro-drones. The company was to deliver the drones by mid-2023, but would not tell Defense News the status of the order.

“The opening of this facility is a testament to the success of Elbit Systems UK over the last three years and demonstrates the successful implementation of our strategy set out three years ago,” Martin Fausset, CEO of Elbit Systems UK, said in a statement. “Our commitment to providing cutting-edge, sovereign capability to the UK Armed Forces has allowed us to grow our presence, investing in our people and our facilities to support our frontline customers.”

The report, released Monday, details the U.S. federal government’s nearly $200 billion in fiscal 2022 spending on critical technologies — but warns China is still outpacing the United States.

In FY22, biotechnology topped the list of the 12 identified critical technologies the U.S. invested in, at $81.3 billion.

This difference in the pace of technological advancement between the U.S. and China is largely due to accessibility to patents, according to Govini. Over the last five years, the report finds, the number of patents associated with critical technology areas and issued to U.S.-based companies has stagnated, while the number for Chinese companies has steadily increased.

Indeed, Govini finds that in every critical technology subsegment, China has surpassed the U.S. in granted patents as of 2022. Furthermore, since 2018, China’s total number of patents has been steadily increasing and is now at its highest rate. Meanwhile, the U.S.’s patent rate in every critical technology subsegment, except nuclear modernization, has been decreasing in recent years.

“Patents are a leading indicator of technological dominance in the future. [Patents] are the seed for making new discoveries that put you on the top of the competitive food chain,” Bob Work, the former deputy defense secretary who now is a chairman of Govini, said during a call with reporters Monday. “That’s what scares me the most [because] China’s doing far better than us in terms of the overall number of patents.”

Additionally, Govini’s new report finds some U.S. contractors focused on critical technologies are still relying heavily on Chinese suppliers and investors. Tara Murphy Dougherty, Govini’s chief executive, noted Monday all 12 critical technologies in the report are highly dependent on Chinese supplies.

“We have a tremendous reliance as a country for all federal programs and activities that span these 12 technology areas on our greatest geopolitical competitor: China,” she said.

Lawmakers are increasingly raising concerns about the dominance of China when it comes to key technology areas. At the Intelligence and National Security Summit last week, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said national security no longer means “the nation with the most tanks, guns, ships, and planes.”

“With China, this is a technology competition,” he said while speaking on a panel. “If we don’t invest further, from semiconductors, to overhead capabilities, to [artificial intelligence], quantum analytics, to biology, advanced energy, those are domains where if China dominates, that will pose as much of a national security threat, both in terms of their ability to spread their influence, or frankly, to take to take us offline, as anywhere else.”

“We all agree that the most imminent task now is to ensure that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign independent nation in Europe,” Stoltenberg told reporters after the first day of the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. “So the most important thing we can do is to continue to provide weapons, ammunition [and] military support to Ukraine, because unless Ukraine prevails as a nation, as a democratic nation in Europe, there is no issue to be discussed about security guarantees or membership in NATO at all.”

Stoltenberg’s comments came after Zelenskyy called the summit’s final communiqué language “absurd” in a tweet on Tuesday afternoon. The Ukrainian president made clear he was expecting a concrete time frame for when Ukraine would be formally invited to be a member of NATO.

According to the Washington Post, an anonymous person familiar with the situation claims the U.S. delegation was furious with Zelenskyy’s tweet.

Stoltenberg said no country has ever been offered such a time frame for membership, saying all applicants must meet NATO conditions and garner unanimous allied support.

“If you look at all the membership processes, there have not been timelines for those processes,” Stoltenberg said. “They are condition-based, have always been.”

He outlined three steps the alliance would take to pave the way for an eventual Ukrainian membership. The first element is a multi-tiered program to help transition Ukraine to Western military equipment and provide assistance in rebuilding their defense sector.

The second is a new NATO-Ukraine Council where Ukraine and NATO will “meet as equals” and discuss strategic objectives, Stoltenberg said. This group is set to have its inaugural meeting July 12, the second and final day of the NATO summit, with Zelenskyy expected to attend.

The third element is removing the alliance’s formal membership action plan requirement — which constitutes a lengthy, wholesale examination of military and civilian compatibilities with alliance members — to quicken the accession process.

Additionally, Ukraine’s NATO membership hinges on conditions related to good governance and anti-corruption policies, according to Stoltenberg.

Perhaps most importantly, Stoltenberg noted ongoing combat with invader Russia prohibits membership at this time. The point reflects a longstanding fear among Ukraine’s Western backers that the war could spill over to NATO if the alliance were to put the full weight of its security guarantees on the table before a peace agreement is reached.

“We will be in a position to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the alliance when allies agree and conditions are met,” reads the summit’s final communiqué.

Cope Thunder is a bilateral exercise that aims to improve the interoperability of the United States and the Philippines through fighter training. The exercise will allow the two countries to swap tactics, techniques, and procedures.

Cope Thunder was first held in 1976 in the Philippines. However, in 1992, it was moved to Eielson Air Force Base and overtime renamed Red Flag Alaska. This will mark the first time Cope Thunder has been held in the Philippines since 1990.

The exercise is a valuable opportunity for the United States and the Philippines to improve their military cooperation and exchange helpful tactics and will feature C-130 Hercules, A-10 Warthogs, and F-22 Raptors, taken from multiple participating units for the exercise.

The aircraft on display include, but are not limited to those, and showcased a Philippine Air Force FA-50 performing a touch-and-go on July 5. On the same day, a U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor from the Hawaiian Raptors Squadron, which is made up of the 19th and 199th Fighter Squadrons, landed at Clark Air Base in the Philippines to participate in exercise Cope Thunder 23-2.

The overall goal of this exercise is to heighten our countries’ shared interests and strengthen the two nation’s military bonds. By working together and providing well-trained and equipped troops, the nation dissuades aggressors by demonstrating the military’s commitment to working together to ensure regional stability.

In the announcement, it was stated that Simmons, who is currently assigned as command senior enlisted leader of the Space Operations Command in Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado, will replace Marine Corps Master Gunnery Sgt. Scott H. Stalker as command senior enlisted leader for U.S. Space Command in Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado.

In a moderated discussion on Agile Combat Employment and Enlisted Leadership back in October 2022, Simmons discussed the complexities space brings to missions and the unforeseeable climate space imposes.

“You continue to hear that space is congested, contested, [and] competitive, I’ll add that it’s complex. It is extremely complex in space,” Simmons said. “Space is ubiquitous. It is persistently present. It is involved in every mission, it is involved in every capability and it must be intertwined as such… Space is no longer peaceful, permissive or predictable. That is a new condition we find ourselves in.”

Simmons continued on to highlight the present dangers space holds and the importance of exploring the terrain in informed, updated ways.

“Space is a ballistic battlefield. And what I mean by that is things move in space at 17,000 plus miles per hour and with over 50,000 objects in space or nearly 50,000 objects in space, each of those have the potential of colliding at an instant and creating a cascade of long lived shrapnel,” Simmons said. “That is a battlefield that just doesn’t stop. It doesn’t rest. Space is a technical and a tactical terrain. We have to get after a new set of threats and we have to understand what the new thresholds are.”

Simmons emphasized our responsibility to understand and battle space with new, inventive solutions.

“We have to look at getting after things, not only in an innovative way, but being able to iterate those things and integrate them into the fight faster and further in than what’s ever been asked from space before,” Simmons said.

By giving Simmons a new assignment, hopefully his background and extensive knowledge of space can help the U.S. Space Command advance their journey into space and continue to fight on such an incalculable terrain.

“We have to empower at the edges with the authorities to be able to execute at speed,” Simmons said. “That means we have to be able to trust those leaders at the very front end, the very front edge of the space fight.”

With Simmons as one of those leaders at the front of the space fight, the ever-evolving fight in space continues with a new leader.