Dassault Aviation said it was moving sensitive equipment from a site closest to the wildfires to one nearer Bordeaux, with most workers staying home in line with instructions issued by the authorities. ArianeGroup had evacuated its affected sites, while the French Atomic Energy Commission CEA closed its military nuclear research site near Bordeaux as the wildfires approached. The Gironde department of southwest France has been battling one of the country’s largest wildfires on record, with over 100,000 acres burned — an area roughly four times the size of Paris. The fires in recent days approached the cluster of defense and aerospace sites west of Bordeaux that represents one of France’s most important concentrations of missile, propulsion, combat aircraft, and military electronics production. Dassault Aviation had to move “a certain number of sensitive equipment” from its site in Martignas and a logistics center in Cestas to its site in Mérignac and the local Air Base 106, working in close cooperation with France’s Directorate General for Armament and local authorities, the aircraft maker said in an emailed statement late Monday. Satellite data on Tuesday morning showed wildfires remained active less than 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) west of Dassault’s Martignas site, which is the wing assembly plant for the Rafale jet, before final assembly of the aircraft in Mérignac. NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System showed fires and hot spots west of Bordeaux were significantly reduced as of 9 o’clock in the morning local time, though authorities have warned that a new wave of hot weather with a peak on Wednesday, combined with near-record drought conditions, could cause fire activity to pick up again.

Employees at the Mérignac and Martignas plants are staying home, in line with instructions issued by authorities, unless they’ve been evacuated, Dassault Aviation said. Those still working are the teams necessary for the transfer of equipment and those in charge of protecting the site to help with fire-fighting efforts, the company said. ArianeGroup is working in close cooperation with local and national authorities, and the company’s sites west of Bordeaux “have been evacuated, and all necessary measures have been taken to secure them,” the space-launch company said in an emailed reply to questions. The firm said it’s not commenting on security measures around its sites. Satellite data as of Tuesday morning showed active wildfires around 12 kilometers west of ArianeGroup’s Candale site, where the propulsion units of the M51 missile stages are integrated and assembled, around 13 kilometers from the site of Saint-Médard-en-Jalles where the missile is fueled, and some 16 kilometers of the Le Haillan site that produces the company’s solid-propulsion systems.

“Whilst the unprecedented forest fires in Gironde are above all an environmental and humanitarian disaster, they also threaten sites that are of vital strategic importance to our nuclear deterrent,” said Etienne Marcuz, an associate fellow at the Foundation pour la Recherche Stratégique, in a post on the social media network X on Sunday. Emergency services aided by local construction companies worked during the night of Friday to Saturday and throughout the day to clear vegetation and create firebreaks around a number of sensitive sites, Gironde department Prefect Sophie Brocas said in a press conference on Saturday. Marc Vermeulen, the head of the Gironde department fire and emergency service, said that after protecting lives, the next priority is protecting at-risk strategic sites. The DGA has a missile testing site just west of Saint-Médard. Thales said its site at Mérignac has been closed since Monday as a precautionary measure, in accordance with guidelines from the authorities. The company said it’s doing everything possible to safeguard its strategic equipment at the site and ensure continuity of its commitments to customers. The Thales site sits across from the Dassault Aviation campus in the Bordeaux suburb, and supplies equipment including avionics systems for the Rafale as well as military helicopters.

MBDA’s Roxel unit has one of its main production locations in Saint-Médard, where it produces propellant, solid rocket motors and carries out integration work for rockets and drones, on a site shared with ArianeGroup. Roxel produces the motors for a number of MBDA missiles, including the Aster range of air-defense interceptors. “Roxel is managing the situation and the necessary measures have been taken to ensure the safety of our staff and our operations, with the support of the relevant authorities and emergency services,” MBDA said in an emailed statement, declining further comment. The CEA said its site in Le Barp southwest of Bordeaux has been closed due to the wildfire situation. After wildfires in 2022, the center put in place new procedures, provided additional fire-fighting equipment to the in-house fire brigade, and created firebreaks around the center, the government organization said in an emailed reply to questions. The CEA Cesta site houses the organization’s megajoule laser, a research instrument used to create conditions of extreme heat and pressure similar to those produced by nuclear weapons, and part of France’s efforts to maintain the credibility of its nuclear deterrent without live nuclear testing. As of Tuesday morning, satellite data showed active wildfires around 7 kilometers from the site, after the fire front got to around 4 kilometers from the CEA site over the weekend.

The Trump administration is weighing whether to extend access to some Chinese rare earth materials beyond the January 1, 2027 cutoff after U.S. producers acknowledged they cannot build sufficient domestic processing and magnet capacity before the deadline, Reuters reported on Monday. Industry executives and Pentagon suppliers told Reuters that U.S. processing and magnet manufacturing capacity remains insufficient to meet despite billions of dollars in federal support for new mines, separation facilities and downstream manufacturing. The gap threatens not only military procurement but also supply chains serving electric vehicles, offshore wind, robotics, data centers and other energy-intensive industries that depend on high-performance permanent magnets.

The shortage centers on neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) and samarium-cobalt magnets, which rely on rare earth supply chains that China continues to dominate. Beijing still controls the overwhelming majority of global rare earth refining and permanent magnet production, giving it enormous leverage over downstream manufacturing even as Western governments accelerate efforts to diversify supply. While the United States has made meaningful progress expanding domestic mining, processing, alloy production and magnet manufacturing require specialized infrastructure that has taken China decades to develop. Companies including MP Materials, USA Rare Earth, Lynas Rare Earths, Energy Fuels and REalloys are investing heavily to establish domestic production capacity, while Washington has backed the sector through Department of Defense contracts, EXIM financing and strategic stockpiling initiatives. Several projects are expected to begin commercial production over the next 18 months, but executives say they will not be capable of completely replacing Chinese supply by early 2027. Beijing's tighter export controls and expanded rare earth traceability regime have further strengthened its grip on global magnet feedstocks, limiting the ability of Western manufacturers to source critical materials outside China.

American defense strategy depends on airpower. That has been true for decades, but the demand signal is sharper now. The United States expects its Air Force to deter China, reassure allies in Europe, defend the homeland, respond to crises in the Middle East and remain ready for major war. Those missions are spread across different theaters, different timelines and different levels of risk. They all assume that enough combat airpower will be available when needed. That assumption is becoming harder to defend. The Air Force fighter fleet is now the oldest and smallest in the service’s 78-year history. Legacy fighter aircraft have been divested at roughly a two-to-one ratio compared with the procurement of new fighters. The fighter inventory is projected to reach its lowest point in fiscal year 2028, and the service’s primary mission fighter aircraft inventory has already fallen below the congressionally mandated floor of 1,145 aircraft. These figures point to a basic force-planning problem. The United States is assigning its fighter force a global mission set while allowing the force to shrink during recapitalization. Better aircraft are necessary, but they do not eliminate the need for enough aircraft. A smaller fighter force has fewer tails for training, fewer aircraft available during maintenance cycles, fewer options for combatant commanders and less ability to absorb attrition if deterrence fails.

The Air Force’s fiscal 2027 budget request would buy 62 fighters: 38 F-35As and 24 F-15EXs. That would be an improvement over deeper cuts, but it remains below the level needed to stabilize the force. National Guard leaders have urged Congress to support at least 72 new fighters per year, with a goal above 100 as the industrial base allows. The difference between 62 and 72 aircraft may look modest in one budget cycle. Over several years, it determines whether the force continues to shrink or begins to recover. This is the context for the bipartisan letter I led to congressional defense leaders with Representatives Don Bacon, Donald Davis, Russell Fry,

Clay Higgins,

whayouwannado is you wanna get some of them planes right ere

Dusty Johnson, Nancy Mace, Ralph Norman, August Pfluger, Pete Stauber, Chris Smith, William Timmons and Joe Wilson. The letter urges Congress to use the FY27 defense bills to procure no fewer than 72 fighters per year, scale above 100 as industry allows, support multiyear procurement authority for the F-35A and F-15EX, maintain at least 57 combat-coded fighter squadrons and require better reporting on fighter recapitalization across the Active, Guard and Reserve components. The proposal is deliberately specific. It does not try to settle every dispute about the future of air power. It addresses the nearer-term problem that aircraft are leaving the inventory faster than replacements are arriving.

Some divestment is necessary. Older aircraft become more expensive to sustain and less useful against advanced threats. But divestment only works when replacement capacity arrives on time. Retiring aircraft before replacements are fielded does not only change the age of the force. It changes the size of the force. That timing problem is central to the fighter debate. A fighter that arrives in the 2030s cannot offset a squadron shortfall in the late 2020s. Future systems matter, but they do not meet today’s requirements until they are fielded, crewed, maintained, integrated and available to commanders. The debate should not become a competition between platforms. The F-35A remains central to fifth-generation capacity. The F-15EX provides payload, range, homeland defense value and a practical replacement path for aging aircraft. The F-22 remains important until the next air dominance platform is fielded in sufficient numbers. The F-47 and collaborative combat aircraft will shape the next generation of airpower. These programs should be treated as parts of one force-design problem: whether the fighter fleet is large enough, modern enough and ready enough to support US strategy.

That question is most urgent in the Pacific. The Department of Defense has assessed that China surpassed 600 operational nuclear warheads by mid-2024 and could have more than 1,000 by 2030. China is also modernizing its conventional forces, missile forces, maritime forces, space capabilities, cyber capabilities and air forces. The relevance for fighter procurement is not that every Chinese capability requires a US fighter response. It is that the pacing challenge is large, sustained and increasingly sophisticated. A shrinking fighter fleet leaves less room to meet that challenge while also covering other global commitments. Following my letter to congressional leadership, I am proud that the House-passed FY27 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes a key priority to strengthen America’s fighter fleet for the long term. By establishing higher fighter inventory requirements and expanding multiyear procurement authority, Congress is taking meaningful action to ensure our Air Force has the aircraft needed to deter our adversaries and maintain air superiority. We must also continue working to ensure the Air National Guard is fully included in all recapitalization efforts, including those involving legacy fighters. While these provisions represent an important step forward, our work is not finished. Congress should use the remaining FY27 defense bills to fully align fighter procurement with our national defense strategy. Combatant commanders need enough aircraft to meet real-world requirements. If the United States wants a defense strategy that deters aggression, reassures allies and gives commanders options in crisis, Congress and the Department of Defense must close the fighter gap before a conflict exposes it.

Police and fire authorities said they received calls from the US military at around 5:07 p.m. reporting the leak of the toxic chemical substance at the K-55 U.S. Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, about 60 kilometers south of Seoul. The Pyeongtaek city government issued the alert notifying the public of the possible white phosphorus leak and advising residents nearby to evacuate to a safe location to prevent skin exposure. White phosphorus is an extremely toxic substance capable of burning human tissue down to the bone upon contact. Its military use is tightly regulated and discouraged by the international community.

The US Air Force said its experts discovered residue of white phosphorus crystallization inside a munitions crate during a routine inspection of munitions, prompting the unit to immediately cordon off the area to protect the base and local residents. "The situation is fully contained, and the cordon has been lifted," the US 51st Fighter Wing said in a statement. "There are no injuries resulting from this situation and no risk to personnel on or off installation." The Air Force unit said normal operations have resumed. "The safety of our service members, their families and our Pyeongtaek neighbors remains our absolute highest priority," 51st Fighter Wing Commander Col. Ryan Ley said. "We deeply appreciate your patience and cooperation as our highly trained personnel safely resolve this isolated situation," he said. The US military reportedly informed the city that the leaked substance had been roughly 80 percent diluted and that it poses a low risk to public health and the surrounding environment.

oh don't worry, it was merely a diluted highly dangerous substance!

Pyeongtaek authorities subsequently lifted the evacuation advisory, about 36 minutes after the initial alert, informing residents that it was safe to return to normal after necessary measures were completed at the US base. The US Air Force unit said earlier that some reports of a general evacuation of Osan Air Base were incorrect. The leak report had prompted local authorities to send firefighters and related equipment to the scene and coordinate joint responses with the US military, officials said. Police had set up a cordon with patrol vehicles about 300 to 500 meters from the base as a precaution, and blocked civilian access and detoured traffic. "The chemical substance, used for cleaning warheads, leaked inside the K-55 munition depot, but the US military informed us that the situation is now under control and poses no danger," a police official said. "A US military explosive ordnance disposal team and our firefighters responded to the scene, and operations are now largely complete," the official said earlier.