Lockheed Martin today revealed it will bid the LMXT tanker for the Air Force’s forthcoming KC-Y bridge tanker competition.
Saturday, May 18, 2024
Saturday, May 18, 2024
Key Issues GAO on F-35 SLCM-N program office PrSM funding
Courtney Albon was senior editor for aviation and space at Inside Defense until December 2021. She covered the Air Force since 2012, reporting largely on space programs and fighter aircraft acquisition, development and budget from inside Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and from military installations around the United States. Courtney previously worked as a general assignment reporter at The Ashland Times-Gazette in Ashland, OH, covering education and local government. She graduated from American University in 2008, where she studied journalism and sociology.
Lockheed Martin today revealed it will bid the LMXT tanker for the Air Force’s forthcoming KC-Y bridge tanker competition.
As House lawmakers push the Defense Department to drive down the F-35's long-term sustainment costs, the head of the joint program office said this week the Defense Department is taking steps to secure more of the technical data rights that could create future options to shift toward a more government-managed, competitive approach to sustaining the Joint Strike Fighter enterprise.
The F-35 joint program office is working closely with the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the services to develop options for future propulsion system modernization efforts and expects to mature an "end-state solution" within the next six to 12 months.
The head of the F-35 joint program office said today that a Defense Acquisition Board meeting slated for August to review the schedule to complete the Joint Simulation Environment and initial operational test and evaluation has been moved to October due to personnel issues within the Pentagon's acquisition and sustainment office as well as ongoing refinement of the program's schedule.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on Monday revealed a new effort to develop a space-based laser communication system to connect proliferated low-Earth-orbit architectures.
The Defense Department today awarded Lockheed Martin an F-35 sustainment deal worth up to $6.6 billion across three years that could lead to a future performance-based logistics contract.
The Defense Department is finalizing an implementation plan for the Space Force's new Enterprise Satellite Communications Management and Control infrastructure aimed at improving the way the department manages and integrates military and commercial SATCOM services.
The Space Force's Commercial Satellite Communications Office is "socializing" a new acquisition framework for buying and delivering COMSATCOM services to military users but does not have a solid timeline for when the long-anticipated strategy will be approved.
Despite continued concerns from Congress and government watchdog agencies about schedule risk on the Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared system -- the Space Force's largest development program -- service and industry officials are confident in their risk-mitigation strategy and say recent design milestones indicate the program is on track to deliver on time.
House authorizers want the National Reconnaissance Office to use the Space Force’s major launch services contracting mechanism “to the extent practicable” according to a draft of fiscal year 2020 defense policy legislation.
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- As part of a broader missile tracking and warning force design effort, the Defense Department is considering initiating the second batch of Space Development Agency tracking layer satellites sooner than planned.
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- The House Armed Services Committee’s chairman’s mark of the fiscal year 2022 defense policy bill would grant the Space Force the authority to create a new assistant secretary for space acquisition and integration.
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- Space Systems Command is evaluating mitigation options should Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine, which is powering the United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket set to fly a portion of the National Security Space Launch manifest procured through fiscal year 2024, face additional development delays.
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- The head of Space Operations Command today cast doubt on the prospect of building out a second Space Fence site in the next few years.
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- As the Air Force secretary and the Pentagon’s research and development chief lead early efforts to transition the Space Development Agency into the Space Force, a key issue will be determining what acquisition and contracting authorities the agency will retain.
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- The Space Development Agency’s recent decision to use the National Security Space Launch Phase 2 contract to carry Tranche 1 satellites will only cost marginally more than working with a commercial provider due to efforts from the Space Systems Center’s NSSL program office.
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- The commander of U.S. Space Command today announced the organization has achieved initial operational capability.
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall today announced a significant reorganization of the service’s space acquisition directorate that will create a new Space Force acquisition and integration office, adding that he’s working through a short list of candidates to recommend for the new Space Force acquisition executive role.
Welcome to today’s Space Briefing -- a biweekly roundup of the latest national security space news.
As the F-35 joint program office considers future propulsion system modernization options, General Electric is arguing for an F135 engine replacement the company says would outpace technology offered through an incremental upgrade approach.