Christopher Woody was an editor on the Military & Defense team, where he commissioned and edited freelance stories and reported on defense and security issues from Washington DC.
Reach him on Twitter at @chrstphr_woody.
China's air force is ditching its scripted exercises, and the US Air Force is telling its partners to come ready to do high-end training.
China's method of "using the enemy to train the troops" has obvious risks, but Beijing also sees benefits in getting up close with US forces.
With Russia's Yasen-class subs patrolling the Atlantic and Pacific, the US would face a "dual-flank challenge," a Navy admiral said earlier this year.
The US Air Force has a plan to spread out to new bases to avoid incoming attacks. Now it's working hard to make them a "meaningful" option.
In a war with China over Taiwan, "the first target that we're going to have to deal with is the ships," a US Air Force general said earlier this year.
Russian and Chinese pilots "feel pretty confident they can compete in this arena," US Air Force Gen. Mark Kelly said in September.
In the near-term, China is focused on keeping the US military away from its shores, and it doesn't need a jet as good as the F-35 to do that.
"We need more ships. We need more repair yards," Rep. Mike Gallagher told Insider. "It's all hands on deck within the free world right now."
"Risky" intercepts of US planes can "cause accidents, and dangerous accidents can lead to an inadvertent conflict," a US defense official said.
ATACMS would be a valuable addition to Ukraine's arsenal, but using it effectively requires timely intelligence and precise targeting, experts say.
The Finns are considered experts at conducting highway operations, and NATO air forces are sending their best jets to train with them.
US airmen have shown they can drop missiles from cargo planes and hit a target. Now they're looking for other things to do it with.
The US Air Force has been looking at "every single piece of concrete in the Pacific" to find new runways. Now it's going to check out the beaches too.
Thanks to the Russian military's inability to do timely and accurate targeting, Ukraine's air force has been able to keep its jets flying.
The Alabama Republican and former college football coach is refusing to relent on his controversial blockade of military nominations.
US Air Force officials have seen how effective Ukraine's air force has been at moving its jets around, and they want to be just as good at it.
In the decades after World War II, US troops rarely had to worry about enemy aircraft. Recent wars have shown that they no longer have that luxury.
Ukraine started the war using the same or similar air-defense systems as Russia, and the Russian inability to defeat them has perplexed US commanders.
The US Air Force is looking for planes that can carry more cargo over longer distances while using less fuel and operating at a wider range of bases.
The F-16 will be better suited for Western-made weapons than Ukraine's Soviet-era jets, but it won't be a "silver bullet," Gen. James Hecker said.