The U.S. Army is seeking to develop a new virtual training environment with higher fidelity than older simulation systems, Defense News reported Monday.

The Synthetic Training Environment effort aims to replace the Army’s stove-piped trainers made in the 80s and 90s with a virtual multi-domain environment that provides enhanced realism.

Maj. Gen. Maria Gervais, who leads the effort, told Defense News that the STE would be finished much earlier than 2030 due to technological advancements in the gaming industry.

The upcoming Army Futures Command will contribute support for the STE’s development.

The Air Force Research Laboratory has released a new video that shows the service’s proposed concepts for unmanned aircraft and other weapon systems, Military.com reported Monday.

Some of the programs cited in the video “Air Force 2030 – Call to Action” include the Loyal Wingman, Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project, Gremlins, next-generation flight suits and laser weapons.

Loyal Wingman is an unmanned aircraft designed to be deployed with F-35 fighter jets to collect intelligence data and navigate through enemy territory, while the Gremlins are microdrones that are built to swarm hostile defenses.

The military branch expects the flight demonstrations for the Gremlins and the Loyal Wingman project to occur in 2019 and 2022, respectively.

AFRL partnered with Raytheon and Boeing in 2012 to test the CHAMP missile system that homes in on electrical systems and power grids through high-powered microwave emissions.

The Air Force has requested $504 million in fiscal 2019 funds to support research, development, test and evaluation of next-gen air dominance programs and plans to invest approximately $11 billion in the next five years on such initiatives, the report added.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPZpp_Y6Er8

Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) have called on President Donald Trump to support the sale of the Lockheed Martin-built F-35B fighter aircraft to Taiwan to help the East Asian state build up its air defense capabilities.

The lawmakers wrote a letter to Trump Monday and asked his administration to supply additional F-16V fighter jets “if determined that release of the F-35B to Taiwan is premature,” the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council said in a news release Monday.

“These fighters will have a positive impact on Taiwan’s self-defense and would act as a necessary deterrent to China’s aggressive military posture across the Asia-Pacific region,” they added.

Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the US-Taiwan Business Council, said the council believes the sale of additional fighter jets to Taiwan supports the White House’s policy to advance “capacity-building” among Asian allies, offers U.S. companies an opportunity to export defense systems and serves a response to China’s force modernization initiatives.

The U.S. Army‘s new Futures Command will take over some organizations of existing Army commands as part of its mission to unify the military branch’s modernization programs, Breaking Defense reported Monday.

The Futures Command will assume leadership of the Army Materiel Command’s Research and Development Command; unspecified components of the Army Test and Evaluation Command; and parts of the Training and Doctrine Command’s Army Capability Integration Center.

Army program managers and program executive officers will have a reporting relationship with the Futures Command and will continue to report to the Army assistant secretary for acquisition, logistics and technology.

The new command will take responsibility for all technologies and projects beyond the current Five-Year Defense Plan, but AMC will continue to develop and maintain Army equipment and TRADOC will continue to oversee personnel training and education.

Army Undersecretary Ryan McCarthy announced earlier this month that the service branch plans to establish the Futures Command’s headquarters in a major city to support collaboration with civilian technology professionals.

Gen. James McConville said at a conference hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army that the Futures Command is needed to lead modernization initiatives and allow the Forces Command, AMC and TRADOC to focus on their respective missions to deploy, sustain and train the existing force.

Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has released a proposal to prohibit the use of the $8.5 billion Universal Service Fund in procuring services from firms that pose national security vulnerabilities.

FCC said Monday the proposed rule aims to protect U.S. communications networks and corresponding supply chains from national security threats.

“The money in the Universal Service Fund comes from fees paid by the American people, and I believe that the FCC has the responsibility to ensure that this money is not spent on equipment or services that pose a threat to national security,” Pai said.

FCC will hold a meeting on April 17 wherein a vote regarding the proposal is scheduled to take place.

The U.S. Air Force expects its F-35, F-22 and other fighter jets to potentially home in on hostile air and ground targets without the need to rely on land-based command-and-control platforms as adversaries develop new technologies designed to attack C2 systems, Warrior Maven reported Monday.

“Airmen of the future will need to get after the mission orders, take their skills and abilities and operate without a lot communication back to central command and control,” Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said at the Air Force Association’s Air War Symposium.

“It is about the Air Force being prepared to fight in the future of warfare,” added Wilson, a 2018 Wash100 recipient.

The service has begun to accelerate work on the Link 16 platform to speed up sharing of threat intelligence, navigational and target data between air-attack systems and reduce dependence on radio communications tools that are vulnerable to jamming.

The Air Force Research Laboratory has collaborated with industry to further develop and test a force-tracking radio frequency technology that works to identify the location of warfighters on the ground without using GPS signals, the report noted.