The Air & Space Brief: China’s hypersonic did ‘circle the globe’; Female fighter pilots make history: “We fly for her.”
By Tara Copp
Senior Pentagon Reporter, Defense One
November 2, 2021 02:12 PM ET
Welcome to the Defense One Air and Space newsletter. Here are our top stories this week:
China’s hypersonic missile that launched this summer “did circle the globe,” a U.S. official confirmed to Defense One. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley called the launch a potential “Sputnik moment,” and defense experts said it reveals how far behind the U.S. is in hypersonic technology. “Maybe the nuclear game has just changed,” one American Enterprise Institute visiting fellow warned.
Major weapons manufacturers are preparing to fire potentially thousands of workers who refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccine by the Biden administration’s Dec. 8 deadline. That could delay some programs, the CEOs of some of the nation’s largest defense firms said during quarterly earnings calls last week. While some of the firms are proactively hiring additional workers now to pick up the slack, there’s a risk that some production lines may temporarily shut down due to a lack of skilled workers.
The Air Force and Space Force will miss getting all active duty airmen and Guardians 100 percent vaccinated, but not by much, according to the services’ latest COVID-19 vaccine statistics. As of Oct 25, 94.6 percent of the active-duty force was fully vaccinated. Only 88.9 percent of the total force, including Guard and reserve personnel, had been fully vaccinated. Each of the services is also now evaluating exemption requests filed by some members.
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2021/11/air-space-brief-chinas-hypersonic-did-circle-globe-female-fighter-pilots-make-history-we-fly-her/186558/
