Thursday, December 9, 2021
Key Issues pLEO RFI pulled PPBE process LRSO
The Air Force expects to award a follow-on production contract for Joint Direct Attack Munition guidance kits in fiscal year 2024, a service spokeswoman said this week, with the new deal "likely" going to the program's current prime contractor, Boeing.
General Atomics is the second company to win a $17 million contract for developing an unmanned Off-Board Sensing Station, setting up a later competition with fellow awardee Kratos for a follow-on deal down the line.
Lockheed Martin is now projecting its acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne will close in the first quarter of calendar year 2022, rather than the fourth quarter of this year, as previously expected.
The Air Force has awarded Kratos a $17 million contract for research and development of an unmanned Off-Boarding Sensing Station -- a platform the company’s president and CEO has said "could ultimately be as significant and transformational to Kratos as we expect Valkyrie to be."
The Air Force is poised to enter initial operational test and evaluation for its HH-60W Combat Rescue Helicopter in early 2022, a service spokeswoman says.
The head of Air Combat Command doesn't anticipate the Air Force would receive the Boeing E-7A Wedgetail this year or next if the service moves forward with buying the aircraft as a replacement for its aging E-3 Sentry fleet.
Defense officials are looking to flight test the Airborne High Energy Laser on an AC-130J Ghostrider in fiscal year 2023, a U.S. Special Operations Command spokeswoman told Inside Defense this week, pushing back the planned demonstration by a year.
Kessel Run and Air Combat Command have struck a deal formalizing the coding unit's continued delivery of software and further modernization efforts, marking the first user agreement involving an Air Force major command under the Defense Department's new software acquisition policy.
Air Force officials are poised to fully implement their enterprise information technology “as-a-service” model later this fiscal year, transferring responsibility for basic networking and commodity IT work out of the service and freeing up airmen and guardians for mission defense work.
Senate appropriators aren’t looking to stand in the way of the Air Force’s planned divestment of a portion of its Global Hawk fleet, though they’re hoping the service will direct some of the aircraft toward ongoing hypersonic flight-testing efforts.
The Air Force is seeking studies and analyses tied to replacing the aging fleet of E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft, according to a new notice.
After Congress nearly halved the budget for the Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System last year, Senate appropriators are looking to add another $65 million to the program as service officials work to pivot away from experimentation and focus on capability delivery.
The head of Air Mobility Command this week cleared the way for the KC-46 tanker aircraft to refuel F-15s and F-16s, marking the third time officials have approved an interim capability release to grant greater capacity to U.S. Transportation Command.
More than a month after posting a pointed resignation message on his LinkedIn page slamming the Defense Department’s approach to IT modernization, the Air Force’s first chief software officer, Nicolas Chaillan, is hopeful the service will hire a successor for the role he described as "critical for the future of our nation."
Northrop Grumman announced today it has opened a software development facility as part of an expanded footprint in Huntsville, AL, to support the Air Force's Ground Based Strategic Deterrent.
The head of the 16th Air Force sees China’s targeting of U.S. intellectual property as the biggest -- if not as visible -- cyber threat that’s facing the nation.
Following two requests for information tied to a potential replacement for the MQ-9 Reaper, some in the defense industry say the Air Force is training an eye on future threats and prioritizing survivability as officials continue to weigh their options.
Andrew Hunter, President Biden’s nominee to serve as the Air Force's next acquisition executive, told senators today that if confirmed, he'd work to leverage different avenues to acquire software, "bake in sustainability on the front end" for systems in development and seek to focus the acquisition process on delivering operational capabilities.
Raytheon Technologies expects its Small Diameter Bomb II will be fielded on the Navy's F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet within the next few months, while approval for operational use on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is projected to follow in calendar year 2022.
Some of the more traditional vendors supporting the Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System say they see potential for the defense industry to lead the way in ensuring the Pentagon’s broader vision for a military internet of things is achieved, as they internally orient themselves toward enabling both ABMS and joint all domain command and control.