The Air Force is exploring options for a follow-on to the MQ-9 Reaper even as the service scales back procurement of the remotely piloted aircraft and looks to fully retire its predecessor, the MQ-1 Predator.
Thursday, May 9, 2024
Thursday, May 9, 2024
The Air Force is exploring options for a follow-on to the MQ-9 Reaper even as the service scales back procurement of the remotely piloted aircraft and looks to fully retire its predecessor, the MQ-1 Predator.
The Pentagon's top adviser on force development this week offered weapon developers and engineers a number of ways the industrial base can help the Defense Department achieve its long-term national defense strategy as budget top lines continue to fall.
One of the authors of the Pentagon's latest Quadrennial Defense Review has answered a number of criticisms leveled against the QDR by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-CA).
The Air Force may review the procurement of Russian-built rocket engines for United Launch Alliance's Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle in light of recent events in Ukraine, according to the service's top civilian.
The Air Force will protect funding for the recapitalization of its Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System aircraft regardless of whether full sequestration cuts return in fiscal year 2016, service Chief of Staff Mark Welsh said today.
The Air Force will defer important RQ-4 Global Hawk sensor upgrade work if sequestration spending limits return in full in fiscal year 2016, according to service Secretary Deborah Lee James. The work is seen as essential to bringing the Block 30 Global Hawk fleet closer to parity with the U-2 spy plane in order to meet the high-altitude intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance needs of combatant commanders as the U-2 fleet is moved toward retirement.
More than $182 million in funds appropriated in fiscal years 2012, 2013 and 2014 for U-2 spy plane modification and development remains unspent, according to budget figures released by the Air Force.
The Air Force is planning to buy far fewer munitions overall in fiscal year 2015 than the previous year in order to afford an increase in orders for smart, standoff weapons, budget documents released this week show.
The Air Force is trying to reduce annual spending on MQ-9 medium-altitude intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft by spreading procurement across the future years with an end goal of having a fleet of 346 Reapers by fiscal year 2021, according to the service's FY-15 budget request.
A post-Afghanistan restructuring of the Air Force's command and control enterprise will include the near-term divestment of some E-8C and E-3G aircraft in exchange for long-term modernization efforts, according to fiscal year 2015 budget information released today by the Defense Department.
The Air Force has requested just more than $8 billion in fiscal year 2015 to fund its top three acquisition priorities -- the KC-46 tanker, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and Long-Range Strike Bomber -- as part of its FY-15 budget plan presented to Congress and the public today.
There are "no technical reasons" preventing the Air Force from migrating its prized Senior Year Electro-Optical Reconnaissance System multispectral imagery sensor from the manned U-2 spy plane to the remotely piloted RQ-4 platform, according to the intelligence-gathering system's prime contractor UTC Aerospace Systems.
Lockheed Martin is mounting a strong defense of the U-2 spy plane program after the Pentagon announced its intention to retire its entire fleet of legacy Dragon Lady intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft in favor of Northrop Grumman's unmanned RQ-4 Global Hawk.