Thursday, May 9, 2024
The latest version of the Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, the AIM-120D, has been declared operational by the Air Force and Navy and now the program office is looking to add new electronic-attack protections through a software upgrade recently fielded on the AIM-120C7.
The head of U.S. Strategic Command has called on Congress to provide the level of funding prescribed in the fiscal year 2016 budget request as lawmakers consider legislation that would cut expenditure on nuclear weapons by about $100 billion over the next decade.
Air Force cost forecasting for major defense acquisition programs has stabilized as the current suite of satellite, aircraft and weapons procurements mature, with price estimates down by $229 million in fiscal year 2014 compared to a $13 billion downward revision in FY-13 and a $7 billion revision the year before.
The Air Force intends to begin ordering spare parts to support production of the new Hard Target Void Sensing Fuze built by Orbital ATK with a milestone C decision imminent.
Northrop Grumman has become the third major defense contractor to sign an enterprise-level, public-private partnership agreement with the Air Force Sustainment Center after Lockheed Martin in 2014 and Boeing the year before.
The Air Force does not believe it can produce an operational Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile by fiscal year 2016 as directed by Congress, but will instead produce a "cross-function study" this summer to inform the way ahead for this type of technology.
Air Force Special Operations Command has backed away from a plan to replace its U-28A tactical surveillance aircraft with the MC-12W Liberty, a turboprop aircraft currently assigned to the Air Force's 9th Reconnaissance Wing.
The Air Force is weighing whether to install a fully integrated, active electronically scanned radar system on F-16s performing homeland defense missions in the United States or opt for a less-expensive version that would be tailored specifically for air-to-air combat.
The stratosphere appears to be the next frontier for the satellite industry as the military, government and commercial sectors look to reduce their dependence on expensive space-based assets for communications, surveillance and positioning, navigation and timing.
The Air Force Research Laboratory is looking for the next leap in airborne infrared search-and-track technology after posting a broad agency announcement on March 12 for innovative ideas that might lead to the development of an "advanced, staring" IRST capability for air superiority.
The Pentagon's senior acquisition panel has approved the Air Force's intent to recapitalize the E-8C Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System aircraft with a smaller, militarized business-class jet, moving the new acquisition program into the materiel solutions analysis phase.
The Air Force Research Laboratory is exploring the technologies that would be required to develop an affordable, miniature self-defense munition to protect aircraft from incoming missiles and other threats.
Boeing and Saab North America have partnered to pry open new markets for the Small Diameter Bomb that Boeing currently builds for the Air Force by demonstrating a ground-launched version capable of striking targets almost 100 miles from the launch site.
The cost of operating the A-model F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was $67,549 per flight hour in fiscal year 2014, making the developmental fighter aircraft twice as expensive to operate as the more numerous F-15 Strike Eagle and F-16 Falcon aircraft and 14 percent more costly per flight hour than the B-1B Lancer based on comparable figures provided by the Air Force.
The Air Force concluded its close-air-support summit last week with a pledge to create CAS-focused fighter squadrons and improve high-end combat training for mission specialists, but the service played down talk of developing an A-X aircraft to eventually replace the A-10 Warthog -- branded by Ai
The cost of operating the RQ-4 Global Hawk fell by 38 percent to $14,876 per flight hour in 2014, according to a source familiar with the program.
The head of the administration responsible for maintaining the nation's nuclear stockpile said this week that some weapons surveillance and life-extension programs could be delayed or canceled in fiscal year 2016 without relief from sequestration, but those decisions would be made in consultation with the Air Force and Navy.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has teamed up with a Spanish firm to offer its multimission MQ-9 Reaper to Spain, which has a requirement for a new surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft.
The internal weapons bay of the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter cannot fit the required Small Diameter Bomb II weapons load, and a hydraulic line and structural bracket must be redesigned and modified ahead of the planned Block 4 release in fiscal year 2022, the joint program office confirmed this week.
Israel will purchase 14 more F-35 Joint Strike Fighters at an average cost of $110 million per aircraft, the country's Ministry of Defense announced in a Feb. 23 press statement.