Free Republic

The US Air Force has been trying for years to retire its aging fleet of A-10 Warthog planes. During a Thursday hearing, the service secretary said the aircraft "doesn't scare China." "It still has some limited utility, but we have to get on with things," Frank Kendall told Congress. The US Air Force has long butted heads with Congress over plans for the retirement of its aging A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft — flying cannons also known as Warthogs, and on Thursday, service leadership stressed to legislators that it's time to move on because the warplane is less useful than...

U.S. forces are now considering sending fighter jets to Ukraine as it continues to face an assault from Russia, according to Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall. Lieutenant Colonel Kendall said that Ukraine is busy dealing with its 'right now problem' in an allusion to its ground-based fighting in the Donbas region. But he also said that assistance in the form of aircraft may be needed. 'We'll be open to discussions with them about what their requirements are and how we might be able to satisfy them,' the Air Force head said during the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado on Wednesday....

It has been about 10 days since Russia invaded Ukraine. While Russia’s military is advancing further into the country, it is clear that all is not going according to President Vladimir Putin’s plan. While Moscow has made progress in its efforts against Ukraine, it has also experienced a series of significant setbacks.The Washington Examiner recently published a report detailing some of Russia’s mistakes in its endeavor to overthrow Ukraine’s government. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall during a speech at the Air Force Association’s annual conference on Thursday stated that Putin has “made a very, very serious miscalculation.”He said the Russian...

House Democrats on Wednesday introduced a measure in the 2022 defense budget to eliminate the Space Force. Rep. Jared Huffman (D., Calif.) led a resolution, cosigned by fellow Democratic representatives Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), Maxine Waters (Calif.), Mark Pocan (Wis.), and Jésus García (Calif.), to "abolish" America's newest military branch. The measure received support from the Koch-funded National Taxpayers Union and radical anti-war groups such as Peace Action and Demand Progress. The push to defund the Space Force comes as China increasingly threatens the United States. Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said Monday that China is developing means to...

The US-India defence relationship needs an engine to drive it, say leaders on both sides. But there are different perceptions on what that engine might be. Americans believe the engine should be the "Defence Trade and Technology Initiative" (DTTI), a high-level committee of officials from both sides that moots projects for working together, and removes bureaucratic roadblocks. In January, when President Barack Obama met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, they "emphasised the ongoing importance of the (DTTI) in developing new areas of technology cooperation", according to a joint statement issued at that time. Indian officials are focused on...

On CBS’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday night, national security correspondent David Martin chronicled the seemingly never-ending list of problems with the Pentagon’s next-generation F-35 fight jet, from cost overruns of $160 billion to technical problems that have plagued the plane’s development. When asked if the F-35 program, which is expected to cost some $1.5 trillion over the four-decade life of the program, is now under control, the Pentagon’s acquisition chief, Frank Kendall, said, "Yes, it is." But that commitment came with a warning. “Long gone is the time when we're going to pay for mistake after mistake after mistake," said...