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New Promotion System for Space Force Sergeants Coming This Year
March 4, 2025
AURORA, Colo.—The Space Force will start rolling out a new promotion system for Specialist 4s (E-4s) rising to Sergeant (E-5s) later this fiscal year, Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force John F. Bentivegna said at the AFA Warfare Symposium.
The new system aims to do away with annual caps on the number of E-4s who can become E-5s, allowing commanders to select as many qualified Guardians as they feel are ready for the responsibility of being a noncommissioned officer.
“If they’re qualified and ready and are doing the work, let’s make them an E-5, especially if they’re combat mission ready,” Bentivegna told reporters.
Under the current system, E-5 candidates are scored and ranked based on their performance and training records.
A selection board then chooses which ones advance to E-5 based on their qualifications and how many E-5s can promote that year.
With the new system, every E-4 who meets the qualifications will be promoted, removing any limits on the number of eligible candidates, Bentivegna explained.
A centralized selection board will still evaluate whether an E-5 candidate is qualified, but instead of ranking those candidates based on scores, “the board will focus solely on determining each individual’s qualification for advancement to E-5,” the chief added.
“This critical decision will be made based on a thorough review of each E-4’s record, performance reports, and input from their direct supervisor and commander.”
The new system is an extension of the fully qualified promotion system that already exists for Guardians ranked E-1 through E-4, where commanders evaluate and endorse Guardians as ready for their next rank based on demonstrated performance and readiness.
When the system expands to E-5s this fiscal year, it will start with a centralized selection board, but the goal is to eventually push that authority to the unit command level.
“This change empowers commanders by entrusting them with the added responsibility of identifying and promoting the most qualified Guardians to E-5 within their units,” Bentivegna said.
Most candidates make it to E-5 already. The promotion rates in 2022, 2023, and 2024, were 66.91 percent, 72.08 percent, and 95.66 percent, respectively.
The new system makes it so that all qualified E-5 candidates can switch from stripes to chevrons on their rank insignia. But that doesn’t make promotion a guarantee, Bentivegna said.
“This system ensures a continued emphasis on quality within our E-5 ranks, even as we expand opportunities for advancement,” he said.
The roll-out will start sometime in fiscal 2025. While the specific qualification requirements are still being worked out, the system will incorporate factors such as time in service, time in grade, and potentially professional military education as prerequisites for promotion, the chief explained.
There are no definitive plans yet for expanding the program beyond E-5s, but officials are always seeking feedback to inform any future decisions about it, he added.
The move to expand fully qualified promotion to E-5 candidates is part of a larger project Bentivegna has championed to enhance Guardians’ experience in service.
The project revolves around three themes: providing meaningful quality of life and service to Guardians and families; elevating Guardians’ warfighting mindset; and keep bringing in star talent.
“I want to make sure that your experience is one that you value, one that you respect, one that you brag about when you talk to your friends and your neighbors and your family,”
Bentivegna said in September when he revealed the plan at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference. “That’s why I envision the Guardian experience. That’s why these are my key initiatives.”
Part of the effort involves keeping noncommissioned officers hands-on in the day-to-day mission for longer in their careers, rather than shift to managerial roles.
“When I talk about the future, I want to really hammer home the expectation that you never lose that requirement to be operationally relevant,” Bentivegna said in September.
The new promotion system is meant to match that and help better match enlisted talent where they can do the most good throughout their careers.
“It’s kind of modernizing how we look at the enlisted talent that we have within the service, and how do we more tightly align the promotion gateways with accomplishments and responsibility,” Bentivegna told reporters March 3.
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/space-force-e-5-sergeant-promotion-system/
Gen. Saltzman visits AFSOUTH, highlighting USSF evolving role in the Western Hemisphere
March 4, 2025
Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman visited Air Forces Southern headquarters Feb. 27, reinforcing the increasing role of space-based capabilities in the Western Hemisphere.
AFSOUTH serves as the air component to U.S. Southern Command, providing air, space and cyberspace capabilities throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, playing a vital role in countering transnational threats and fostering regional stability through multinational cooperation.
Saltzman met with Air Force Maj. Gen. David Mineau, AFSOUTH commander, and Col. Brandon Alford, AFSOUTH director of space forces, to discuss the air components’ enduring space program.
“We have adversaries who understand the importance of spacepower and are ready and willing to take it from us.
The Guardians here at AFSOUTH are not going to let them,” Saltzman said. “Their space expertise provides critical awareness across the region, enabling everything from disaster relief to efforts that counter transnational threats.”
The trip marked Saltzman’s first visit to AFSOUTH where he received a mission brief from local Guardians on their contributions to advancing space capabilities in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility.
“Our AOR provides a unique proving ground for innovative ideas such as Agile Combat Employment concepts in the space domain,” Alford said.
“We’re demonstrating how multinational space teams can operate effectively by leveraging unclassified and commercial systems in a contested domain, and we’re eager to share these lessons with our partners.”
Air Forces Southern continues to integrate the space domain throughout its joint exercises, most recently distinguished during exercise Resolute Sentinel 2024 in Peru, where more than 66 combined joint space experts worked to provide essential real-time information to troops on the ground.
“Our Guardians are the first to ask, ‘how can we help?’ when disaster strikes,” Saltzman said. “The capabilities they bring to bear strengthen our readiness and build vital bridges with our allies in the Western Hemisphere.”
The visit also included a trip to the University of Arizona, where Saltzman spoke with ROTC cadets from the Wildcat Wing, addressing the future military leaders about the value of service in a leadership capacity.
“You signed up to do something important, something of consequence, something that others have been unwilling to do,” Saltzman said.
“Regardless of the reason that you decided to stand up and join the military, think about how much value you’re adding to our national security and the American way of life.”
As the senior uniformed Space Force officer, Saltzman is responsible for the organization, training and equipping of all organic and assigned space forces serving in the U.S. and overseas.
Saltzman’s visit underscored the USSF’s expanding role in regional security, emphasizing innovation, adaptability, and strong partnerships.
He praised AFSOUTH’s integration of space capabilities into joint operations, reaffirming its commitment to strengthening multinational cooperation and ensuring space remains a key enabler in safeguarding stability across the Western Hemisphere.
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4100046/gen-saltzman-visits-afsouth-highlighting-ussf-evolving-role-in-the-western-hemi/
US drone lost over Red Sea on same day as Houthi claim of MQ-9 Reaper downing
Stars and Stripes • March 5, 2025
A U.S. military MQ-9 Reaper drone disappeared over the Red Sea the same day Houthi militants in Yemen claimed to have shot one down, according to a defense official with knowledge of the operation.
U.S. Central Command lost contact with the drone Monday, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The day given by the official coincides with the one in an X post by the Houthis that they had downed a Reaper in a coastal region of Yemen using a surface-to-air missile.
It’s unclear whether the Houthis were responsible for the loss of the drone.
“If true, then this is the latest example of the increased reckless actions by the Iranian-backed Houthis that pose a risk to regional stability,” the defense official told Stars and Stripes in an email.
News of the drone’s disappearance comes just as the U.S. reinstated its designation of the Houthis as a terrorist group.
The Houthis have launched hundreds of strikes at commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023.
In response to the Houthis’ actions, the U.S. has carried out regular strikes against the group. The most recent, in early January, took out an underground weapons storage site.
The U.S. has lost 12 MQ-9 Reaper drones to the Houthis since the start of the war in Gaza, the defense official said.
The aircraft, which cost about $30 million apiece, are primarily used to gather intelligence but can also perform precision strikes.
Houthi activity in the Red Sea and nearby waters has significantly slowed since Israel and Hamas agreed to a tentative ceasefire in January.
https://www.stripes.com/theaters/middle_east/2025-03-05/reaper-drone-houthis-red-sea-17044640.html
Golden Dome for America
March 3, 2025
Golden Dome stands as a formidable shield, safeguarding the American homeland with unwavering precision, ensuring the security and resilience of our nation.
Golden Dome for America is a revolutionary concept to further the goals of peace through strength and President Trump’s vision for deterring adversaries from attacks on the homeland.
This next generation defense shield will identify incoming projectiles, calculate trajectory and deploy interceptor missiles to destroy them mid-flight, safeguarding the homeland and projecting American Strength.
THE CHALLENGE: Mobilize American industry and innovation to deliver the first Golden Dome for America defenses by the end of next year.
While we deploy that combat-proven foundation, we will bring in the best and brightest of American innovation to rapidly develop game-changing tech – like space-based interceptors and hypersonic defenses – that will ensure America’s Golden Dome stays well ahead of adversary threats.
THE APPROACH: The fastest, most efficient path to a Golden Dome for America is to bring the best of the defense and commercial industries together as a National Team.
This is a Manhattan Project-scale mission, one that is both urgent and crucial to America’s security.
Lockheed Martin is ready to lead this National Team and pull the best of industry, emerging and large technology companies together to safeguard our nation.
We lead the MDA’s National Team for C2BMC and successfully built the world’s most powerful missile defense software network, which connects forces around the world 24x7.
We’ve proven our ability to work across industry to bring the best of the best to the warfighter, and we have existing partnerships with defense and commercial tech to bring both proven and next-generation capabilities to the fight.
THE RISK: If a missile is coming over the horizon, that’s not the time to do beta testing. Build on a combat-proven foundation today, while you innovate for the future.
This mission is too vital to leave to chance. Missile defense requires more than just AI or software expertise.
It’s about connecting a global array of complex systems that need to work at lightning speed and with pinpoint precision at the mission’s moment of truth.
THE SOLUTION: Lockheed Martin is the only company with the proven, mission-tested capability and track record to lead this effort.
With that combat-proven foundation in place, our open architecture approach allows the best of commercial, defense and new entrants to build game-changing innovations into the system as they become available, expanding range, territorial coverage, accelerating timelines, and strengthening deterrence.
This mission can’t be left to chance with unproven technology – the mission must be met with proven capability providers, who can deliver the greatest innovation, with high reliability, at scale, and ahead of need.
Focused on the mission and the partnerships needed to succeed, our innovative solutions will safeguard our homeland and ensure America’s continued security and prosperity.
https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/capabilities/missile-defense/golden-dome-missile-defense.html
Nigeria adopts drone technology for blood delivery in hard-to-reach areas
March 5, 2025
The National Blood Service Agency (NBSA) has entered into a strategic partnership with Zipline International Nigeria Ltd. to deploy drone technology for the swift and efficient delivery of blood supplies across the country.
Speaking on the development, the Director-General of NBSA, Prof. Saleh Yuguda, on Wednesday in Abuja described the initiative as a major advancement in Nigeria’s healthcare system.
Yuguda said: “The agency is fully committed to ensuring the success of this project. This partnership is a groundbreaking step toward improving Nigeria’s healthcare system.
“We are committed to ensuring its success because it is both a life-saver and a time-saver.”
Similarly, Akin Oyediran, Managing Director of Zipline Nigeria, reiterated the company’s commitment to tackling blood-related emergencies through cutting-edge technology.
Oyediran commended NBSA for embracing innovation, stating that the partnership aligned with Zipline’s mission to reduce preventable deaths caused by delays in blood supply.
“With this initiative, Nigeria joins a growing number of countries leveraging drone technology to strengthen healthcare delivery and emergency response systems,” he said.
The initiative, modeled after Rwanda’s successful drone-powered blood distribution system, is expected to enhance the collection, storage and timely distribution of blood, particularly in remote and underserved communities.
The use of drones is aimed at addressing delays that often lead to loss of lives due to blood shortages
https://worldstagenews.com/nigeria-adopts-drone-technology-for-blood-delivery-in-hard-to-reach-areas/
https://latinamericareports.com/drone-attacks-increasingly-affect-civilians-in-colombias-conflict/10839/
Drone attacks increasingly affect civilians in Colombia’s conflict
March 5, 2025
The sound of buzzing drones is sowing terror in Colombian communities under siege from unmanned aircraft flown remotely by rebels battling a high-tech state military.
Improvised devices, fashioned from commercially available drones, drop home-made bombs capable of killing and maiming. And there is growing evidence civilians are being deliberately targeted after a series of aerial attacks on towns and public spaces.
Last month in El Plateado, a town in the mountainous department of Cauca, a drone-dropped grenade exploded on a tented hospital set up by international medical organization Médecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), injuring local health workers.
“Events like these put the civilian population and the medical mission at risk, both protected by International Humanitarian Law,” said MSF following the attack.
But the next day, February 18, two more civilians, one an 80-year-old woman, were injured in the same town in a second attack by three drones dropping explosive charges into a residential barrio.
And a week later in the rural area of El Plateado, 1,000 people were forced to flee their rural homes after crossfire between dissidents using drones and counterstrikes from the army.
“The dynamics of the conflict are no longer those long-term battles, as in the past, but the launching of explosives by both sides, between the public force and the armed groups, which have sometimes fallen on the homes of humble people,” local mayor Osman Guaco told La W Radio .
El Plateado is currently the epicenter of fighting between at least one irregular armed group formed by dissident FARC guerrillas and the Colombian military.
The town first came under drone attacks last June when aircraft flown remotely from a nearby hill dropped bombs on civilian structures, destroying houses and damaging a hardware store.
“A bomb fell here, on the entire roof. There were five of us, fortunately nothing happened to us, but we are very scared,” resident Jorge Ramos told local media at the time.
The same week a girl was injured by a similar grenade that fell in the nearby Cauca municipality of Suárez, while in the department’s main city Popayán, the mayor’s office temporarily banned the private use of drones after an attack with explosives against a police station.
The worst, however, was yet to come.
A grim milestone
In July, a 10-year-old boy was killed by a bomb dropped on the soccer pitch in El Plateado. He had been playing with friends and family at a social event. At least 12 others were injured, some seriously.
The incident was the first reported civilian death from a drone strike in Colombia, a grim milestone labelled at the time “a demented attack against the civilian population,” by army commander General Federico Mejia.
The general accused combatants from the Frente Carlos Patiño of the Central General Staff (EMC) FARC dissident group of targeting civilians as a form of “pressurizing the townsfolk to reject the presence of state military” in the town.
This came as the state forces pushed into an area long dominated by rebel forces.
El Plateado sits astride access routes to the Cañon de Micay, a contested smuggling route down to the Pacific lowlands and major coca-growing region with 20,000 hectares planted along the canyon’s sides.
The region, previously held by the FARC guerrillas before their peace deal in 2016, has since been controlled by dissident EMC fighters now coming under intense military pressure.
The resulting surge in open conflict was prompting irregular armed groups to “find new ways to attack the troops that will allow them to obtain better results without losing their men in the confrontation,” a military investigator explained to newspaper El Colombiano last year.
Drone tactics copied from asymmetric wars in Ukraine and Sudan could give Colombia’s irregular forces a chance to even the playing field against a superior, hi-tech military.
The rise of the drones
In 2024, there were 115 drone attacks in Colombia, according to a report by the Ministry of Defense, mostly carried out by “criminal and terrorist groups against soldiers and installations.” Previous years had seen just a handful of incidents.
Military commanders voiced their concerns in March last year, and later released videos, purportedly intercepted by military intelligence, which showed these rebel units preparing and practicing with small commercially available drones, such as the DJI Pro 4, in some cases using bags of sugar to test the takeoff load.
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Drones used so far have a maximum payload of one kilo (two pounds) which allows for an explosive charge of around 500 grams (half a pound) packed in a plastic pipe with nails as shrapnel.
The finned bomb is suspended under the drone and released by a radio-controlled hook.
These designs follow a pattern long established by armed groups of making their own armaments from industrial dynamite and hardware from a local store.
Small missiles called tatucos are fired from plastic plumbing piping, and larger mortar rounds fashioned from gas cylinders. Landmines are made from soda cans or food containers.
This new generation of lightweight drone bombs “can flatten everything in a radius of five meters,” explained a community leader consulted by Latin America Reports, who had witnessed drone strike impacts.
He also noted that drones were increasingly used in combat between rival irregular groups, as seen in his region of Norte de Santander where the ELN guerrillas have been combating the Frente 33 (33rd Front), a FARC dissident group.
Last week army troops in the town there of Tibú uncovered an ELN arms cache including drones and explosives.
Drone wars between irregular groups in rural areas were likely to be masked from official statistics, the leader said, on condition of anonymity given the current tension in the region.
Aerial arms race
Insights into competition between rival armed groups to dominate airspace came from interviews with combatants in Nariño, in the southwest of the country.
In Nariño, the EMC is battling the Comuneros del Sur, an ELN-dissident group that entered into peace negotiations with the government last year.
When they [the EMC] “hear the drones they run away,” a Comuneros combatant told La Silla Vacia last year.
Drones had an outsized lethal impact compared to more expensive guns and ammunition, said Comuneros de Sur commander Gabriel Yepes.
The group was using drones costing around USD $1,200, capable of carrying explosives for a flight of 30 minutes and to a height of 500 meters (1,640 feet) where they are less detectable by ground troops.
“A well-aimed grenade can kill up to three or four of our enemies,” Yepes told La Silla Vacia.
The Comuneros del Sur had recruited a team of tech-savvy operators, known as droneros, considered vital to battlefield success, he said. “Our drone unit is the one we protect most.”
But he also admitted competition from rival groups “already using similar technology.”
It is a race the Colombian military is also entering with its scramble to deploy devices that can disable drones before they can deliver their deadly cargo.
Drone busters
One recent success was the use of the Spanish-manufactured Crow counter-drone system at last year’s UN Biodiversity Conference, called COP 16, in Cali.
The system was activated to protect the zone where delegates and state officials from the 196 countries were hosted at a summit previously threatened by the EMC armed group.
The Crow jamming system “detected over 300 unmanned aerial systems and blocked 90 unauthorized drone activities,” according to the Colombian Air Force reports after the event.
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The Air Force has units specialized in tactical use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, UAVs, and looking to Colombian companies to develop locally-manufactured military drones and anti-drone devices.
Meanwhile military commanders are claiming considerable success with imported jamming technology such as the handheld DroneBuster, which is no bigger than a tennis racket.
According to General Federico Mejía, in charge of the Cauca offensive last year, while drones were “complicating the military’s operations,” many attacks had been neutralized.
“Fortunately, they have not impacted on the humanity of any soldier,” he said.
Civilians under fire
If the military have technical means to protect themselves, civilians may not be so lucky.
Whereas some attacks in El Plateado appear targeted at civilian structures, other cases appear to be incidents of collateral damage, where armed groups were targeting police stations in urban areas or groups of soldiers where civilians were nearby.
And historical data shows consistently that civilians are disproportionately affected by explosive devices such as landmines, launched bombs, or remote controlled devices.
“Explosive devices in both rural and urban areas continue to leave an indelible mark on society,” said the International Committee of the Red Cross last year when presenting figures from 2023, which recorded 380 victims of landmines and controlled explosive devices, including 61 deaths.
Of these 60 per cent were civilians. Colombia has a long history of lethal mistakes from home-made armaments, such as an infamous incident in 2002 when a FARC cylinder bomb misfired and killed 80 civilians sheltering in a church.
And whereas drones might at first appear to be more accurate weapons, a key concern is that military jamming devices used to protect troops could instead cause these armaments to detonate on bystanders.
“Once disabled these things could crash and explode on impact. We have no way to stop them,” a community leader told Latin America Reports. He asked to remain anonymous.
So far there is no specific data on civilian drone victims, though likely this category will be included in future reports. Our own analysis of information in the public domain reveals communities bombarded by drones in Cauca, Nariño, Valle de Cauca and Tolima.
Other at-risk departments, based on military finds of cached armaments, include Norte de Santander, Arauca, Huila, Guavaire, and Vaupes. All the signs are that drone warfare in Colombia – and its number of innocent victims – will reach new heights in 2025.
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Seoul’s spy agency reveals North Korean forces learning drone tactics in Russia
05 March 2025 18:14
On March 5, South Korea's intelligence agency revealed that North Korean soldiers sent to Russia for the Ukraine war are receiving drone training from Moscow.
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) made this assessment amidst rising concerns that Russia may have provided North Korea with drone-related technology in exchange for Pyongyang’s military assistance to Moscow’s war efforts, Caliber.Az reports via South Korean news agency.
In addition to supplying ammunition and conventional weaponry, North Korea has sent approximately 11,000 troops to the Kursk region of Russia since October to assist in the ongoing conflict.
The NIS also noted last week that North Korea seems to have deployed additional forces to Russia.
North Korea has been intensifying its efforts to develop unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), including multi-purpose attack drones.
Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, had ordered the rapid mass production of suicide attack drones as early as November last year.
Meanwhile, North Korea is set to begin drone production this year with technical support from Russia, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK.
This initiative follows a strategic partnership established between the two countries in 2023, marking a deepening military alliance.
The agreement will enable North Korea to develop and mass-produce various drones, potentially as a response to its deployment of soldiers in support of Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Sources suggest that the drone collaboration is a reciprocal gesture after North Korea sent approximately 8,000 soldiers to fight alongside Russian forces in Kursk Oblast, with up to 12,000 troops reportedly deployed last fall to assist in countering Ukrainian advances.
This growing cooperation includes trade, investment, and broader political and security engagements, further solidifying Russia and North Korea's military ties.
https://caliber.az/en/post/seoul-s-spy-agency-reveals-north-korean-forces-learning-drone-tactics-in-russia
Russian drone attack on Odesa injures 4, causes power outages
March 4, 2025 3:37 AM
A Russian drone attack targeted energy infrastructure in southern city of Odesaovernight on March 4, causing power outages across the city and disrupting heating systems, according to local authorities.
At least four people were injured in the attack, according to State Emergency Service.
Odesa Oblast Governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram that a strike has damaged energy infrastructure, and confirmed that parts of the city were experiencing power cuts.
A Russian drone attack targeted energy infrastructure in southern city of Odesaovernight on March 4, causing power outages across the city and disrupting heating systems, according to local authorities.
At least four people were injured in the attack, according to State Emergency Service.
Odesa Oblast Governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram that a strike has damaged energy infrastructure, and confirmed that parts of the city were experiencing power cuts.
Odesa Mayor Hennady Trukhanov reported that the attack had knocked out three boiler plants, forcing officials to urgently search for alternative power sources to restore heating to residents.
Odesa, a port city on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast with a population of around 1 million, has been a frequent target of Russian attacks throughout the full-scale war.
On March 1, a Russian ballistic missile struck the Odesa port, damaging its infrastructure as well as a foreign civilian ship flying the flag of Panama.
Two port employees were injured as a results of the attack.
https://kyivindependent.com/russian-drone-attack-on-odesa-injures-4-causes-power-outages/