On July 29, the Pentagon’s independent inspector general for Afghanistan told a group of reporters that with 20 years in and trillions dollars spent, Afghan security forces were not confident enough to do basic route clearance or checkpoint management.

Two weeks later, the Taliban had taken nearly all of Afghanistan and was preparing to launch its campaign into Kabul, the capital. Video would show Afghan forces laying down their weapons as the insurgents rolled into city after city, shocking many, but certainly not everyone.

“You know, you really shouldn’t be surprised if you’ve been reading our reports for at least the nine years ... that I’ve been there,” John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, said in late July. “We’ve been highlighting problems with our train, advise and assist mission with the Afghan military.”

After the Taliban took Kabul on Aug. 15, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff stood in the Pentagon briefing room and said that no one saw the country unraveling in that way.

“... the timeframe of a rapid collapse, that was widely estimated and ranged from weeks to months and even years following our departure,” Army Gen. Mark Milley said. “There was nothing that I or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days.”

Milley, along with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, will be forced to revisit that assessment this week, as the two take questions from both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees.

The Space Force, which unveiled a prototype model of its new service dress uniform last week, plans to lock down the design by the end of this year and start wear-testing soon afterward.

In an online panel discussion Monday as part of Defense One's State of Defense conference, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Jay Raymond said the service will take the design on the road over the next few months to meet with Guardians at bases and listen to what they think.

While the immediate online reaction after the prototype unveiling Sept. 22 at the Air Force Association's Air Space & Cyber Conference was largely positive -- if riddled with jokes about a certain resemblance to science-fiction uniforms -- it showed that more work remains to be done.

The uniform pants were panned by multiple commenters as being baggy and shapeless, and in need of more tailoring to match the coat's crisp lines. Raymond did not address the reaction to the pants in Monday's conference, but the military typically considers such feedback as it finalizes new designs.

Based on the input from troops, the Space Force plans to make the final adjustments to the uniform design around the end of the year, Raymond added. It then will produce a limited number of uniforms for wear-testing.

During that phase, participating Guardians will wear the uniform on a day-to-day basis and offer feedback on its comfort, durability and other factors. Eventually, the uniform will go into wide-scale production.

The Space Force sought a "futuristic-looking design" while reviewing 150 designs, Raymond said. This marks a break from other branches of the military that like to emphasize tradition -- particularly the Army, which in recent years revived its World War II-era "pinks and greens" service dress uniform.

In an atypical move, the Space Force designed the women's uniform first and only created the male version after getting the female version right.

"Historically, what we do is we build a uniform for males, and then we tell the females, 'Hey, go fit into this,'" Raymond said. "And it doesn't fit all that well."

A female soldier at Fort Bliss reported she was assaulted by a group of male Afghan refugees, officials said Friday.

"We can confirm a female service member supporting Operation Allies Welcome reported being assaulted on Sept. 19 by a small group of male evacuees at the Doña Ana Complex in New Mexico," Lt. Col. Allie Payne, director of Public Affairs for Fort Bliss and the 1st Armored Division, said in a statement to ABC-7.

Payne said extra security measures will be taken at the Doña Ana Complex, such as better lighting, and that the soldier has received medical care and counseling. She also said the FBI is investigating.

Sources with knowledge of the incident told ABC-7 the assault was not sexual in nature and that the soldier was attacked near her car after arriving for duty.