Friday, April 26, 2024
Key Issues Optical clocks Prototype funding SPAFORGEN
As the Air Force looks to field a fleet of light-attack and light-mobility aircraft to support irregular warfare operations worldwide, once developed, those planes will not be a part of the service's main arsenal, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said today.
Over the past two decades, the United States has slashed the number of nuclear weapons in its arsenal by 75 percent, from slightly more than 22,000 down to just above 5,000, according to figures declassified by the Defense and Energy departments today.
Development work on the Air Force's next-generation unmanned aircraft has been put on hold to allow service officials a chance to integrate a number of new capabilities into the program.
Pentagon officials and their Pakistani counterparts are working a new slate of requirements to identify which unmanned aerial system being used by U.S. forces in Afghanistan will be sold to the Pakistani military.
U.S. and Russian officials are close to finalizing a vital nuclear arms reduction pact, a senior Defense Department official told Congress today.
Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter today backed off claims that Joint Strike Fighter prime contractor Lockheed Martin underbid its initial cost estimates on the fifth-generation aircraft, prompting significant cost growth and schedule delays in the program.
Lockheed Martin is standing by its F-35 program manager and the company has a chance to earn back some of the $614 million the Pentagon is withholding from the contractor as the program strives to control the cost of U.S. and international Joint Strike Fighters.
Air Force leaders are considering the transfer of precision-guided weaponry to Pakistan to aid the country's ongoing offensive against Taliban and al Qaeda forces operating in the region, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said today.
As U.S. ground forces continue to flow into Afghanistan and out of Iraq, the Air Force remains confident it will be able to support ground units in both theaters even as operations in Afghanistan escalate, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said today.
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) has ceded his “blanket hold” on a slate of White House nominees awaiting Senate confirmation, according to a statement released by his office today.
From fielding more robust intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities to bolstering efforts in building partnership capacity, the Air Force is poised to assume a much larger role in irregular warfare operations, according to a draft version of the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is advocating an ambitious new plan to revamp how the Pentagon and the State Department coordinate and execute security and stability operations worldwide.
Col. Christopher Haas, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command-Africa, will be promoted to the rank of brigadier general during a ceremony this week at U.S. Africa Command's headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, according to a command spokesman.
As the Pentagon prepares to push more intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms into Afghanistan to support the White House's new war plan, the services are looking to develop new ways to get valuable intelligence into the hands of combat forces, according to a senior Air Force general.
More than half of the Air Force's new MC-12W 'Project Liberty' intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft will be in the skies above Afghanistan by next summer as part of the Pentagon's revamped military offensive in the country, a senior service official said.
Pentagon procurement chief Ashton Carter last week approved new guidance on how the Defense Department will implement congressionally mandated directives designed to reform DOD's acquisition process.
The Defense Department plans to improve its oversight of major acquisition programs by focusing more on the middle to later stages of programs, the Pentagon's top weapons buyer said today.
The Pentagon and Air Force have set up a new slate of independent review teams to oversee the air service's embattled KC-X tanker acquisition effort, hoping to ensure a successful source selection by summer 2010, according to senior defense officials.
Pentagon officials are taking a hard look at how the creation of irregular warfare air units could enhance current and future IW-based operations and overall strategy, as part of the upcoming Quadrennial Defense Review, a senior DOD official said today.
While the legal authorities governing military and intelligence activities continue to blur in this era of irregular and asymmetric warfare, there is no pressing need to create a new statute to address that crossover, a top Defense Department official said today.