The U.S. Air Force's 4th Special Operations Squadron has received the first delivery of an updated AC-130J Ghostrider gunship equipped with the aircraft's Block 30 configuration, Military.com reported Friday. The service branch accepted the initial AC-130J Block 30 unit during a ceremony at Bob Sikes Airport in Crestview, Fla., according to a USAF SOCOM press release.
Read More »Pentagon’s Andrew Knaggs: USSOCOM to Develop Information Warfare Amid Growing Threat
Andrew Knaggs, deputy assistant secretary of defense for special operations and combating terrorism, said the U.S. Special Operations Command must explore and develop new information warfare methods, Air Force Times reported Wednesday. “We need to move beyond our 20th century approach to messaging and start looking at influence as an integral aspect of modern irregular warfare,” Knaggs said during a recent defense industry symposium.
Read More »Army Opens Special Warfare Facility for Fast Phase Tech Deployment
The U.S. Air Force unveiled a new special warfare technical integration support facility in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., tasked with speeding up the integration of new technologies and updating existing communication equipment for special operations. The Col. John T. Carney Center of Excellence opened during a ribbon cutting and dedication ceremony on Friday, the service said Wednesday.
Read More »Gen. John Hyten: Stratcom, SOCOM Depend on Intelligence, Data
Gen. John Hyten, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, has said Stratcom and Special Operations Command are both warfighting commands that rely on intelligence and information, DVIDS reported Monday. “If we don’t have intelligence information, all the capabilities [both commands have] are pretty much useless,” he said Monday at the 2018 Department of …
Read More »Army Heads Stress Priority on Readiness for Modern Warfighting
U.S. Army Secretary Mark Esper, a 2018 Wash100 recipient, has said the service is focusing on readiness more as it prioritizes the skills of U.S. warfighters instead of meeting the intended number of recruits. The Defense Department said Friday the Army lowered its goal of recruits from 80,000 to 76,500 …
Read More »Brig. Gen. Michael Schmidt Named Air Force C3I & Networks PEO
Brig. Gen. Michael Schmidt, program executive officer for fighters and bombers at the U.S. Air Force, has been assigned to a new role as the service branch’s PEO for command, control, communications, intelligence and networks, the Defense Department announced Monday. Schmidt has led efforts to develop, field, modernize, produce and sustain …
Read More »Report: Army Seeks Non-GPS PNT Tech for Ground Vehicles
The U.S. Army is looking for new technologies that can help ground vehicles relay coordinates in any weather and terrain without the need for a global positioning system link, C4ISRNET reported Tuesday. The service branch released a request for information in December to collect public input on available non-GPS systems …
Read More »Navy Nominees Thomas Modly, James Geurts Gain Senate Committee Approval
The Senate Armed Services Committee has approved the nominations of Thomas Modly as undersecretary of the U.S. Navy and James Geurts as acquisition chief at the service branch, USNI News reported Thursday. Modly, a former Navy helicopter pilot, concurrently serves as managing director at PwC’s national security practice and global government defense …
Read More »Army Searches for Drone Technology at SOCOM ThunderDrone Event
The U.S. Army and other military branches have scouted for drone and autonomous technology at the U.S. Special Operations Command‘s event which exhibited prototypes and demonstrations of drone, robotics and artificial intelligence technology. The Army said Thursday the ThunderDrone event began September at the SOCOM SOFWERX facility in Ybor City, Florida. Experts from …
Read More »DoD Units, Universities Test Air Platforms in GPS-Denied Environment
A group of Defense Department organizations and U.S. universities has tested various aircraft in an environment where global positioning system signal is degraded. The U.S. Air Force said Wednesday the week-long demonstration dubbed Developmental Test Navigation Festival was carried out in Edwards Air Force Base, California to evaluate aerial system performance in …
Read More »