Thursday, April 25, 2024
Key Issues Optical clocks Prototype funding SPAFORGEN
Briana Reilly was a Pentagon emerging tech reporter until December 2022. She previously covered the Air Force for Inside Defense after joining the publication in June 2021. Before that, she spent five years covering state politics and government in Wisconsin for The Capital Times and WisPolitics.com.
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.
NATIONAL HARBOR, MD -- The next flight test for the X-61A airborne retrieval system is slated for this fall, during which Dynetics' Gremlins team lead said the program will showcase repeated recoveries of a single drone and more amid what he anticipates will be the first successful demonstration of the effort.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has notched a free-flight test of one variant of the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept, the agency announced today.
The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency has fully transitioned its data translation tool to the Air Force, a process that one official said will "serve as a model" for moving other efforts that could be leveraged to enable joint all-domain command and control to the service and elsewhere.
Three MQ-9 Reapers are participating in a weeks-long exercise in Hawaii that allows the drones to showcase their maritime tactics, techniques and procedures, ahead of a planned transfer of a handful of the aircraft to Marine Corps Base Hawaii in the years ahead.
NATIONAL HARBOR, MD -- On “a focus track” to kick-start production of the Air Force’s Ground Based Strategic Deterrent in 2026, prime contractor Northrop Grumman is looking to launch its first test missile in the effort to replace the aging Minuteman III system in the fourth quarter of 2023, a company official said.
Lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee want to require the Air Force to integrate its new nuclear cruise missile with the B-21 bomber within two years of the weapon achieving initial operational capability.