Congress is allowing the U.S. Air Force to say farewell to 17 B-1Bs and the RQ-4 Block 20 fleet, but is blocking the retirement of KC-135s, KC-10s and A-10s in the latest fiscal 2021 defense appropriations compromise bill.

Despite the U.S. Air Force demonstrating earlier this month how a piece of the Advanced Battle Management System might work, the fiscal 2021 defense appropriations compromise bill would drastically reduce the program’s funding.

Lockheed Martin’s proposed $4.4 billion cash takeover of aerospace and defense propulsion stalwart Aerojet Rocketdyne–already a key supplier–fits well within Lockheed and will secure the Pentagon’s leading contractor as a hypersonics, rocket and military space leader for decades to come.

Passage of the $696 billion spending bill for fiscal 2021 completes the final appropriations cycle of the Trump administration with a slight uptick in funding for the DOD alone, which received $693.3 billion in fiscal 2020.

The UK’s new fleet of E-7 Wedgetail airborne early warning aircraft are to be based in Scotland rather than England.

The Department of Energy says the recently disclosed cyberattack against the agency did not compromise the National Nuclear Security Administration’s classified systems, but the breach is still causing a stir on Capitol Hill.

The Joint Interagency Task Force-South is advocating that the military services bring aircraft for training to the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility instead of a range stateside.

Plans to move the U.S. Air Force’s UK RC-135 Rivet Joint operating location from RAF Mildenhall to RAF Fairford have been canceled after the U.S. Defense Department decided to keep RAF Mildenhall open.