Soaring High: Pentagon's Space Force Gets New Uniform

The Guardian Service Dress prototype for the US Space Force uniform (AFP/Handout)
The Guardian Service Dress prototype for the US Space Force uniform (AFP/Handout)
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Soaring High: Pentagon's Space Force Gets New Uniform

The Guardian Service Dress prototype for the US Space Force uniform (AFP/Handout)
The Guardian Service Dress prototype for the US Space Force uniform (AFP/Handout)

The US Space Force unveiled its new dress uniform design Tuesday, aiming to make a future-forward mark for the Pentagon's newest uniformed service.

The prototype for the new uniform for the Space Force's Guardians, as they have been officially designated, is a short navy blue jacket with a large flap over the right breast, secured by a diagonal line of six silver buttons.

It has a standing collar, and the service badge, with a delta-shaped rocket pushing into a star, is worn below the left breast.

The jacket is matched with grey trousers or skirts.

"Modern, distinctive, professional" the Space Force called it in a tweet.

"Every winning team needs a uniform! We started with the female design and then created the male prototype," wrote Chief of Space Operations General Jay Raymond.

Launched officially in December 2019, the Space Force was organized to address challenges of fighting war in the exosphere, seen as a distinct theater from the air force.

Similar designs with diagonal buttons holding down breast flaps have been seen for centuries in European and American uniforms, and are donned with large amounts of braid by marching band drum majors today.

But the designers for the Space Force seemed aware of the sleeker uniforms seen in "Star Trek", "Battlestar Galactica" -- where uniforms also had the diagonal buttons -- and "Star Wars".

Indeed, the force's service badge and logo are difficult to distinguish from that of the Starfleet Command from Star Trek.



Scientists Unearth ‘Cute’ but Fearsome Ancient Whale 

In this photo taken on August 5, 2025 and released by Museums Victoria on August 13, 2025 shows Museums Victoria Researcher Ruairidh Duncan posing with an ear bone and partial fossil skull of Janjucetus dullardi, along with a reconstructed skull (L) and the fossil skull of Janjucetus hunderi (R) in Melbourne. (Tom Breakwell / Museums Victoria / AFP)
In this photo taken on August 5, 2025 and released by Museums Victoria on August 13, 2025 shows Museums Victoria Researcher Ruairidh Duncan posing with an ear bone and partial fossil skull of Janjucetus dullardi, along with a reconstructed skull (L) and the fossil skull of Janjucetus hunderi (R) in Melbourne. (Tom Breakwell / Museums Victoria / AFP)
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Scientists Unearth ‘Cute’ but Fearsome Ancient Whale 

In this photo taken on August 5, 2025 and released by Museums Victoria on August 13, 2025 shows Museums Victoria Researcher Ruairidh Duncan posing with an ear bone and partial fossil skull of Janjucetus dullardi, along with a reconstructed skull (L) and the fossil skull of Janjucetus hunderi (R) in Melbourne. (Tom Breakwell / Museums Victoria / AFP)
In this photo taken on August 5, 2025 and released by Museums Victoria on August 13, 2025 shows Museums Victoria Researcher Ruairidh Duncan posing with an ear bone and partial fossil skull of Janjucetus dullardi, along with a reconstructed skull (L) and the fossil skull of Janjucetus hunderi (R) in Melbourne. (Tom Breakwell / Museums Victoria / AFP)

Australian scientists have discovered a razor-toothed whale that prowled the seas 26 million years ago, saying Wednesday the species was "deceptively cute" but a fearsome predator.

Museums Victoria pieced together the species from an unusually well-preserved skull fossil found on Victoria's Surf Coast in 2019.

Scientists discovered a "fast, sharp-toothed predator" that would have been about the size of a dolphin.

"It's essentially a little whale with big eyes and a mouth full of sharp, slicing teeth," said researcher Ruairidh Duncan.

"Imagine the shark-like version of a baleen whale -- small and deceptively cute, but definitely not harmless."

The skull belonged to a group of prehistoric whales known as the mammalodontids, distant smaller relatives of today's filter-feeding whales.

It is the fourth mammalodontid species ever discovered, Museums Victoria said.

"This fossil opens a window into how ancient whales grew and changed, and how evolution shaped their bodies as they adapted to life in the sea," said paleontologist Erich Fitzgerald, who co-authored the study.

Victoria's Surf Coast lies on the Jan Juc Formation -- a geological feature dating to the Oligocene epoch between 23 and 30 million years ago.

A string of rare fossils have been unearthed along the scenic stretch of beach, a renowned site for the study of early whale evolution.

"This region was once a cradle for some of the most unusual whales in history, and we're only just beginning to uncover their stories," said Fitzgerald.

"We're entering a new phase of discovery.

"This region is rewriting the story of how whales came to rule the oceans, with some surprising plot twists."

The species was named Janjucetus dullardi, a nod to local Ross Dullard who stumbled across the skull while strolling the beach in 2019.

It was described in the peer-reviewed Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.