Thursday, May 9, 2024
The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments has released a new report that calls for the creation of a "global surveillance and strike network" to offset the military modernization programs of Russia and China and the proliferation of disruptive technologies and weapons to unsophisticated militaries and terrorist groups.
The British government has announced the deployment of Royal Air Force MQ-9 Reapers to Iraq in support of US. and coalition efforts to combat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant extremist group.
The program office overseeing the Air Force's Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System recapitalization effort is due to provide a draft requirements document to industry today that will define the future platform's functional and performance requirements.
The Air Force wants to catch up on a number Global Hawk air vehicle modifications including adverse weather upgrades, now that it has decided to continue operating the aircraft.
Lockheed Martin has flown the first Australian F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, known as AU-1, through a series of functional checks ahead of its transfer to the Royal Australian Air Force later this year.
Global Hawk prime contractor Northrop Grumman has provided the Air Force with the initial results of a congressionally mandated study that looks at options for employing U-2 spy plane sensor payloads on the remotely piloted RQ-4B Global Hawk.
The Senate Armed Services Committee has blocked a Defense Department reprogramming request to shift $104.5 million in fiscal year 2014 wartime appropriations toward the development of a modification to the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, according to a recent reprogramming document.
The United States and South Korea have agreed on the foreign military sale of 40 conventional-takeoff-and-landing F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, with initial deliveries starting in 2018.
Air Combat Command has re-framed the debate over what type of environment its next-generation intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft will be designed for.
Rolls-Royce executives say they have completed ground and flight testing of a capability upgrade for the AE 1107C engine that powers the Marine Corps and Air Force tiltrotor V-22 Ospreys, but some work remains to update manuals and complete the Federal Aviation Administration's certification process.
The Air Force this week initiated an evaluation process to determine which base will host the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center -- a new organization that will consolidate all major command installation management functions under Air Force Materiel Command and eliminate 923 staff positions across the service.
The head of Air Force Global Strike Command said he expects the Pentagon to settle on a materiel solution for replacing or upgrading the Minuteman III nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile system within 15 months.
Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James has called for "bold leadership" and compromise from Congress to avoid the two fiscal crises that she says would significantly impair the service: a government shutdown and sequestration.
The Air Force's remotely piloted aircraft capabilities division is developing a long-term strategy to guide the development of small unmanned aircraft systems and the team is looking to academia and industry for input, according to the head of that office.
Boeing and Northrop Grumman have unveiled their competing proposals to replace the Air Force's E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System as the service moves forward on the multibillion-dollar recapitalization effort. Boeing has proposed its 737-700 commercial airliner for the airframe component of the program whereas Northrop has put forward a militarized Gulfstream G550 business jet.
The program office overseeing the Air Force's E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System recapitalization effort plans to release a draft set of requirements for the next-generation system to industry by the end of the month. The release will inform a solicitation in fiscal year 2015 for risk-reduction work and prototype demonstrations.
Rolls-Royce has completed ground and flight testing of a major upgrade to its AE 1107C turboshaft engine, which powers the tiltrotor V-22 Osprey used by the Air Force and Marine Corps.
The Air Force wants to ramp up development and modification work on its 30,000-pound, bunker-buster bomb and has requested authority from Congress to realign $121 million in fiscal year 2014 overseas contingency operations funds to get started.
The Air Force's original unmanned hunter-killer aircraft, the MQ-1 Predator, will probably remain in service until around fiscal year 2019 because the service does not have the capacity to pull aircrews away from their current combat duties for retraining on the newer MQ-9 Reaper system.
The F-35 joint program office says it has removed a hold on the delivery of Pratt & Whitney engines to the assembly facility in Fort Worth, TX, despite an ongoing investigation into a June 23 engine malfunction, which caused a fire onboard an Air Force jet.