Latest news with #AndrewHunter
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Don't Get Conned By Trump's Big, Beautiful Air Force One Boondoggle
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM's Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version. Before jumping ahead to the constitutionality of President Trump accepting as a 'gift' from Qatar a $400 million 747 jumbo jet as short-term replacement for Air Force One and the legality of then transferring the plane to his corrupt presidential library foundation for him to use post-presidency – before ALL of that – can we discuss whether this can even be accomplished as a practical matter? Much of the coverage treats it as a foregone conclusion that the Air Force can simply retrofit the Qatari plane and Trump can be soaring in luxury by the end of the year. It was that timeline, reported by the NYT, that caught my eye. First off, the Air Force doesn't have this capability; it has to contract out the work. The WSJ reported on some aspects of this a couple of weeks ago, suggesting that L3Harris had already been commissioned to retrofit a Qatari plane for use as Air Force One (but the NYT reported yesterday that no agreement on a contract has been reached yet). The plane in the WSJ story seems to be the same plane Trump is talking about now, with delivery on a similarly unrealistic timeline. 'Trump wants to have the plane available for use as early as the fall,' the WSJ reported. It's clear though a bit buried in the reporting that retrofitting a 747 (Boeing stopped 747 production in 2022) is not some clever workaround to the challenges Boeing has faced in producing a new generation Air Force One. The array of capabilities that Air Force One currently has are the nut of the contracting problem. There's nothing to suggest that you can solve that problem merely by starting with a lux 747. Here's how the WSJ described it in a May 1 story: Building out an interim airplane by the end of this year poses its own challenges. The plane might not be a true VC-25A that is as capable as the current jets. A quick turnaround would likely limit modifications, said Andrew Hunter, the Air Force's acquisition chief during the Biden administration, who wasn't familiar with the new plans. 'You could do some paint, you could do some communications upgrades, and I suspect it would be hard to do too much beyond that on that timeline,' he said. So the best case is that Trump would end up an Air Force One Lite? What features and capabilities exactly would be sacrificed for an Air Force One Lite? Its complex communications systems? Its elaborate defense systems? Its intense security protections? These do not seems like the kinds of tradeoffs anyone would – or necessarily could as a practical matter – make to get a plane in service quickly, let alone to preserve continuity of government in an attack or other crisis. 'We're talking years, not months,' an anonymous Defense Department official told the NYT. This whole episode has all the trademarks of another Trump boondoggle. While the apparent lawlessness of such an arrangement is alarming, there's an emperor has no clothes aspect to the whole thing. Trump wants what he wants, and no one wants to tell him no. And so everyone pretends it's possible, even to the point of entertaining wildly corrupt scenarios to make it happen. But in the end, the whole thing collapses under the weight of its own ridiculousness. Every utterance by Stephen Miller needs to be caveated with 'Not a lawyer; never a lawyer': But CNN reports it's not just Miller who's toying with unlawfully suspending habeas corpus: 'President Donald Trump has been personally involved in discussions inside the administration over potentially suspending habeas corpus, a legal procedure that allows people to challenge their detention in court.' For a deeper dive on habeas corpus and why suspending it for migrants means suspending it for everyone, Steve Vladeck has you covered. Politico's Kyle Cheney: Judges warn Trump's mass deportations could lay groundwork to ensnare Americans Early Friday afternoon, U.S. District Judge William Sessions of Vermont ordered the immediate release of Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk from federal detention while her case is pending. When the Trump administration did not immediately comply with his order – delaying her release while it fitted her with an ankle monitor – Sessions issued a follow-up order late in the afternoon that she was to be released unconditionally without any monitoring devices or travel restrictions. Following the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka for alleged trespassing during an ICE detention center protest in his city, the Trump administration sent not-so-subtle signals that Democratic members of Congress who were present at the protest may also face arrest. The NYT's Charlie Savage unpacks President Trump's attempt to install Jeanine Pirro as interim U.S. attorney for D.C. and bypass the Senate confirmation proess. Jay Bratt, who as a top deputy to Special Counsel Jack Smith led the Mar-a-Lago documents investigation, appears to be the first member of Smith's team hauled before Congress by House Republicans for a deposition, scheduled for Wednesday, The Guardian reports. The Daily Beast: Pam Bondi Spilled Epstein Secrets to Bogus 'Nanny' at Brunch In perhaps the most sweeping order by any judge confronted with Trump II lawlessness, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston of San Francisco blocked a wide range of administration layoffs and agency dismantlings. In the case brought by labor unions, nonprofit organizations, and local governments, Illston ordered a two-week pause in the Trump administration's rampage through the federal government. 'It is the prerogative of presidents to pursue new policy priorities and to imprint their stamp on the federal government,' Illston wrote. 'But to make large-scale overhauls of federal agencies, any president must enlist the help of his coequal branch and partner, the Congress.' Responding Judge Illston's order above, Roger Parloff explores how slowly and reluctantly most federal judges have been to confront the DOGE-driven Trump II rampage: CPSC: President Trump purported to fire the three Democrats on the five-member Consumer Product Safety Commission. U.S. Copyright Office: President Trump fired Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter, who was appointed head of the U.S. Copyright Office by the Librarian of Congress, whom Trump fired last week. Most of the focus on book bans and stifled academic freedom has involved the U.S. Naval Academy, but the Pentagon is launching a broad attack against the service academies: AP: ' The Pentagon has ordered all military leaders and commands to pull and review all of their library books that address diversity, anti-racism or gender issues by May 21, according to a memo issued to the force on Friday.' NYT: The Pentagon's Culture Wars Strike West Point Graham Parsons, a tenured professor of philosophy at West Point who is resigning at the end of this semester in protest of the Trump-led attack on the U.S. Military Academy: Academic freedom is important at any institution of higher learning, but it has an additional importance at a military academy. The health of our democratic system depends on the military being politically neutral. Protecting freedom of thought and speech in the academic curriculum at West Point is an important way to avoid political partisanship. By allowing the government to impose an ideological orthodoxy on its classrooms, West Point is abandoning its neutrality and jeopardizing a critical component of the very constitutional order that the military exists to protect. On the occasion of former Supreme Court Justice David Souter's death, Adam Liptak revives a 2012 pre-Trump warning from Souter: 'I don't believe there is any problem of American politics and American public life which is more significant today than the pervasive civic ignorance of the Constitution of the United States and the structure of government.' A portion of his warning
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
F-47 Fighter Program Could See Multiple Versions Built In Increments
Boeing's F-47 sixth-generation stealth fighter may just be 'Increment 1' of the Air Force's Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) manned combat jet initiative. This is according to the former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology & Logistics, Andrew Hunter, who had a major hand in the program up until the end of the Biden administration. Alongside the former Secretary of the Air Force, Frank Kendall, Hunter spoke on the latest edition of the Defense & Aerospace Report's Air Power Podcast. You can also read our previous run-down of the main revelations that came to pass in what was a wide-ranging discussion on the F-47 and the related NGAD initiative, here. Stressing that the competition for the NGAD manned combat jet, won by Boeing, was 'structured in a way to encourage […] creativity,' Hunter remarked that the F-47, now under contract for development, represents 'Increment 1,' noting that the program is based around the concept of there being future increments beyond this. As a result, the competition for the NGAD combat jet wasn't designed to be 'all or nothing,' rather, the winner will likely receive an eventual production contract for 'roughly' 100 aircraft, after which 'there will be other orders coming down the pike.' In the past, Kendall had repeatedly stated that the crewed component of NGAD will be made up of around 200 aircraft. Intriguingly, a very similar concept is already taking shape for the Air Force's CCA program. Anduril and General Atomics are currently developing designs as part of Increment 1, with these now designated as the YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A, respectively. Service officials have said they could ultimately buy between 100 and 150 Increment 1 CCAs, and multiple thousands of drones across all of the program's eventual increments. Increment II is already on the horizon, for instance. Hunter's words seem to suggest that all might not be lost for Lockheed Martin, which was beaten to the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) contract by Boeing's F-47 design. Perhaps there could even be a way back into the program in a leading position for Northrop Grumman, which announced what it described as a voluntary withdrawal from the NGAD combat jet competition in 2023. On the other hand, Hunter also indicated that Northrop Grumman was in line to be ejected from competition before that point, which might well adversely impact its future prospects here. Of course, whether either of these companies could take on a central role in the manned NGAD initiative via future increments involving different designs is questionable, with further developments of the F-47 looking to be a more realistic path to achieving the kinds of goals that Hunter refers to. It's also worth noting that these companies can still become (and likely will, at least to some degree) subcontractors to the prime contractor on the program. Clearly, however, Hunter sees different increments as being a part of the program for the NGAD combat jet, although 'time will tell how many increments ever get built.' As for how those future increments may look, Hunter didn't reveal any more details. Although he noted that 'both designs were quite creative,' it seems that Boeing's one for the F-47 may have been somewhat bolder and more innovative than that from rival Lockheed Martin. Hunter said that, in general, incumbent contractors (in this case, Lockheed Martin, already building the F-35) can often appear more risk-averse than challengers. The 'incentives may have been stronger for Boeing. In some ways, they needed to win this one more than Lockheed did,' Hunter added. Between them, Hunter and Kendall did give a few impressions of what the F-47 will likely consist of, which could help provide an idea of how it might be adapted for further increments in the future. Overall, it seems the F-47 follows the basic philosophy of the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter. As Kendall explained it, the F-47 will primarily be an 'F-22-like long-range air superiority focused aircraft, designed for power projection, and designed to go against the most stressing threats that we have.' On top of this, the F-47 will, from the outset, be equipped for the 'quarterback role,' in which it will control uncrewed Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCAs). Further iterations of the NGAD combat jet could still have these qualities, but they might yet add more. Alternatively, the future iterations might emerge as less complex, cheaper designs, intended to maximize 'combat mass,' rather than offer the very highest level of penetrating air superiority capabilities. The ramifications of a lower-cost NGAD combat jet are something that we explored in depth when this same topic was brought up by Kendall last summer. Interestingly, this latter option would also seem to chime with the idea of an export-configured F-47, something that President Donald Trump referred to when he announced Boeing's win. Trump said that U.S. allies 'are calling constantly' with a view to obtaining an export version of the NGAD fighter. He said that the United States would be selling them to 'certain allies … perhaps toned-down versions. We'd like to tone them down about 10 percent, which probably makes sense, because someday, maybe they're not our allies, right?' As we pointed out at the time, getting the F-47 cleared for export, even in a downgraded version, could be a challenge, even more so than it was for the F-22. Kendall was generally circumspect about the chances of an F-47 export version. 'I would be very surprised if any of our partners were prepared to pay that unit cost for a new aircraft,' he said, in reference to the price tag of the basic F-47. Kendall says the F-47's unit cost is expected to be at least twice that of an F-35, or in the $160 million to $180 million range, based on publicly available information. In the past he has mentioned this new aircraft costing up to around three times that of existing designs, or upwards of $300 million. It's not clear what changed that would result in lowering his original estimate. 'Another factor right now, of course, is that the attitude we've taken towards our allies is driving a lot of them to rethink their degree of cooperation and commitment and reliance on us sources for equipment,' Kendall added. He was referring to the growing schisms between the United States and certain NATO allies, increasingly worried about Washington's commitment to mutual defense and its overall reliability as a strategic partner. Kendall also raised a question about the viability of a 'toned-down version' of the F-47, based on the requirements of prospective customers: 'I think, going forward, there are a number of things that will make it problematic for international sales of the F-47. One of them is going to be the statement that was made about lowering capability. You know, we basically have very close allies traditionally, and we share some of the best of our capabilities with them, because we have a lot of trust in them. This administration doesn't seem to be taking that point of view.' On the other hand, U.S. allies might be more willing to buy a somewhat downgraded NGAD crewed fighter if it were to be notably cheaper. Different future iterations of the NGAD combat jet could offer one way of achieving that. For now, we don't know what 'Increment 2' and beyond might look like, or even if the Air Force will find space and funds for them. However, it's worth noting that this is not the first time that fielding multiple variations of the NGAD fighter has been proposed. Back in 2021, TWZ reported on how the Air Force was apparently looking at fielding long- and shorter-range versions of the NGAD combat jet, optimized for operations in the Indo-Pacific and European theaters, respectively. At a House Armed Services Committee hearing regarding the Air Force's Fiscal Year 2022 budget request, Gen. James M. Holmes, the former head of Air Combat Command, brought up the idea of two distinct versions of the NGAD fighter component, an 'Indo-Pacific version' optimized for long-range/heavy-payload missions and one with shorter range sufficient for the European theater of operations. At the very least, it would appear that a different wing planform would be required for each jet to meet these goals. These different configurations could make the 'European version' a bit cheaper to buy, although savings might be offset by the need for different support infrastructure, with a knock-on effect on concepts of deployment and operation. It was later said that this concept had been dropped from where the Air Force was headed with the NGAD fighter program. But nevertheless, an iterative approach to the NGAD fighter jet could revive such an idea and make it a reality. At the same time, there would still be some significant commonality between different NGAD fighter increments regardless of the base airframe configuration. Having the aircraft's subsystems and software identical across different increments would help reduce risk, increase commonality, and drive down costs. Furthermore, the broader NGAD family of systems — radars, infrared search and track systems (IRST), electronic support measures, electronic warfare capabilities, engines, communications architecture, weapons, and more — would be the same. The Navy NGAD program, too, features a lot of commonality with the Air Force equivalent, especially when it comes to the elements mentioned here. In the past, TWZ considered whether the Air Force might choose a highly modular design to achieve different versions of the fighter, although Hunter's more recent words would seem to suggest at least the possibility of more distinct iterations, which might not even be from the same manufacturer. Even before this point, there was a broader discussion about a more rapid development of new fighter designs, something that now seems to be reflected in Hunter's outline of NGAD combat jet iterations. Most prominently, Hunter's predecessor as Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology & Logistics, Will Roper, championed the so-called 'Digital Century Series.' Under this approach, new fighters were to be developed at increments of up to one every five years. Limiting service life to reduce cost and increase iterative production was also a major potential component of such a vision. The idea was always highly ambitious, as we have discussed before, but it was also always expected to play a central part in the NGAD program. Hunter's words could imply that, at least in some small part, this may now be the case. But it still seems highly unlikely that we will ever see all-new crewed fighter designs being churned out at such a prodigious rate. Overall, from what we know so far about the F-47, this component of the NGAD 'family of systems' does sound like it will be primarily a Raptor successor for the high-end fight, albeit one that is superior across its capabilities and which adds new functions such as drone-controller. However, the words of the former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology & Logistics do at least point to thinking around additional versions of the NGAD combat jet. Perhaps the most likely scenario will involve successive production batches of the same basic F-47 design, but incorporating certain changes. Whether such designs will actually be realized remains to be seen, but for now, this is another tantalizing potential aspect of a program that is slowly starting to emerge from the shadows. Contact the author: thomas@
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
UK firms seek fewer staff but offer higher salaries, Adzuna says
LONDON (Reuters) - British employers advertised the fewest jobs for the month of January in four years last month but salaries continued to rise strongly, according to figures published on Monday that illustrate the challenge facing the Bank of England. Job search company Adzuna said the number of vacancies on offer fell by 4.5% compared with January last year to just under 828,500, the lowest January figures since 2021, Adzuna said. However, the average advertised salary increased by 7.0% compared with a year earlier, keeping up a strong run of gains. "This reflects the increasing competition for talent in key sectors, even as overall hiring slows," Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, said. The biggest wage increases were offered in the maintenance, manufacturing and retail sectors. The BoE expects a slowdown in the labour market in 2025 which could help reduce inflationary pressures in the economy and allow the central bank to continue reducing interest rates to help an economy that is barely growing. Official data released last week showed the labour market held up better than expected in the final quarter of 2024 with pay rising by 6%, although the number of job vacancies on offer was also the lowest for a January since 2021 at 759,000. A survey of purchasing managers suggested private-sector employers cut back on staff in February. (Writing by William Schomberg; editing by David Milliken) Sign in to access your portfolio
Reuters
24-02-2025
- Business
- Reuters
UK firms seek fewer staff but offer higher salaries, Adzuna says
LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - British employers advertised the fewest jobs for the month of January in four years last month but salaries continued to rise strongly, according to figures published on Monday that illustrate the challenge facing the Bank of England. Job search company Adzuna said the number of vacancies on offer fell by 4.5% compared with January last year to just under 828,500, the lowest January figures since 2021, Adzuna said. However, the average advertised salary increased by 7.0% compared with a year earlier, keeping up a strong run of gains. "This reflects the increasing competition for talent in key sectors, even as overall hiring slows," Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, said. The biggest wage increases were offered in the maintenance, manufacturing and retail sectors. The BoE expects a slowdown in the labour market in 2025 which could help reduce inflationary pressures in the economy and allow the central bank to continue reducing interest rates to help an economy that is barely growing. Official data released last week showed the labour market held up better than expected in the final quarter of 2024 with pay rising by 6%, although the number of job vacancies on offer was also the lowest for a January since 2021 at 759,000. A survey of purchasing managers suggested private-sector employers cut back on staff in February.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Air Force tests unarmed nuclear missile in pre-dawn video
The Air Force conducted a test launch of an unarmed Minuteman III missile early Wednesday to help ensure its land-based nuclear force still operates safely and effectively. Airmen from Air Force Global Strike Command launched the intercontinental ballistic missile from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 1 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, the department said. The Minuteman missile carried no nuclear payload but was instead equipped with a test re-entry vehicle that was designed to transmit readings. The missile flew about 4,200 miles at speeds of more than 15,000 mph to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site at the Marshal Islands' Kwajalein Atoll. Personnel at the test site, which is run by Army Space and Missile Defense Command, collected radar, optical and telemetry data as the missile closed in, to measure how well it worked. 'Today's Minuteman III test launch is just one of the ways the Department of the Air Force demonstrates the readiness, precision, and professionalism of U.S. nuclear forces,' acting Air Force Secretary Gary Ashworth said. 'It also provides confidence in the lethality and effectiveness of the nation's nuclear deterrence mission.' The Air Force's arsenal of roughly 400 Minuteman III ICBMs is a crucial component of the nation's nuclear triad, along with bombers and submarines that can also carry and deploy nuclear weapons. The Minuteman III system is more than 50 years old and rapidly approaching the end of its life. The Air Force and Northrop Grumman are working on a replacement for the Minuteman III, the LGM-35A Sentinel, which is intended to start being deployed in the 2030s. But the ground-based systems for Sentinel — particularly its control infrastructure — proved to be more complicated than the Pentagon originally expected, and anticipated future costs ballooned. This set off alarm bells in the Pentagon and Congress in early 2024, and the program went under an intensive review. The military ultimately decided last summer Sentinel was too crucial to cancel, and that the Air Force must continue developing it to replace the Minuteman III. But the Pentagon ordered the Air Force to restructure the program and bring those anticipated costs down. The restructuring of Sentinel will likely delay it several years, Pentagon officials said in 2024, which means the Air Force must continue relying on Minuteman III longer than expected. Andrew Hunter, the Air Force's then-acquisition chief, said in July 2024 the Air Force will 'do what it takes to sustain Minuteman III to meet these warfighter requirements in the interim,' before Sentinel is ready. Col. Dustin Harmon, commander of the 377th Test and Evaluation Group at Vandenberg that oversaw the test launch, said the data collected from the test 'is crucial for maintaining Minuteman III while we pave the way for Sentinel.' Air Force going 'line by line' to bring down nuclear missile costs 'During this test, we collected and analyzed performance and other key data points to evaluate current missile system competencies,' Harmon said. 'This allows our team to analyze and report accuracy and reliability for the current system while validating projected missile system improvements.' This test was in the works for months, the Air Force said, and is the latest in a series of more than 300 other such test launches that the department regularly conducts. Vandenberg's Western Range is the main testing ground for Global Strike's ICBMs. In a video the Air Force released shortly after the test, a silo cover at Vandenberg can be seen sliding open before the test Minuteman launches in a burst of fire and roars into the pre-dawn sky. The missile was randomly selected from the Air Force's arsenal at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming. Airmen transported the missile more than 13,000 miles to Vandenberg and reassembled it there for the test. Other Minuteman III missiles are based in Colorado, Montana, Nebraska and North Dakota, spread out across nearly 32,000 miles.
