Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Key Issues Budget 'parity' Summer CUAS demo EW in Ukraine
Courtney Albon was senior editor for aviation and space at Inside Defense until December 2021. She covered the Air Force since 2012, reporting largely on space programs and fighter aircraft acquisition, development and budget from inside Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and from military installations around the United States. Courtney previously worked as a general assignment reporter at The Ashland Times-Gazette in Ashland, OH, covering education and local government. She graduated from American University in 2008, where she studied journalism and sociology.
As the Defense Department continues to work toward introducing competition into its medium-class space launch market, its biggest challenge will be to enforce the processes and practices that come with a new way of doing business, a department official said this week.
Pentagon leaders may never be satisfied with the reliability and readiness of the U.S. nuclear command and control system despite continuing efforts to identify and respond to cyber vulnerabilities, the head of U.S. Strategic Command said today.
Delays to the development of an Air Force training systems acquisition program designed to streamline simulator procurement could affect the time lines of the programs planning to utilize the mechanism.
The Air Force last night successfully sent its fifth Wideband Global Satellite Communications spacecraft into orbit from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL.
Almost a week after the Defense Department renewed a satellite-services lease with a Chinese company, House legislators are proposing a policy that would prevent the Pentagon from purchasing satellite services from foreign entities with certain business or ownership connections to the governments of China, North Korea or any country deemed a state sponsor of terrorism.
A Wideband Global Satellite Communications launch scheduled for this week has been delayed by one day due to an engine anomaly involving a Delta IV rocket booster.
As the Air Force's space programs mature, the Space and Missile Systems Center is working to apply broad-based principles to streamline acquisition processes, reduce costs and make its programs more efficient, according to the general in charge of SMC.
The Air Force is about a week away from cosigning a plan that would move launch provider SpaceX into the certification process to compete for the service's medium-class space launch business, according to the chief of the Space and Missile Systems Center.
The seven-day gap between two upcoming Air Force launches gives the service a tight window in which to complete standard pre- and post-launch procedures, according to Space and Missile Systems Center officials.
Defense Department leadership is reviewing internal procedures related to entering into lease agreements with Chinese satellite service providers, following the recent discovery that the United States has been leasing satellite services from a Chinese company.
The Obama administration's fiscal year 2014 defense budget request cuts nuclear modernization efforts to "dangerous" levels and lacks a strategy for the implementation of a follow-on Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia, according to a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee.
The Air Force's block-buy acquisition strategy for two major space programs has yielded enough savings to protect those programs from near-term sequester cuts, according to the service's acting under secretary.
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- The Air Force has resumed full-capacity missile-warning coverage at a radar site in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska due to North Korea's recent ballistic missile threats, according to the chief of the Air Force's space mission.
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO. -- A much-anticipated Space Fence contract award could be delayed as the Air Force works to prioritize its spending in a time of fiscal uncertainty, a top service official said today.
Information assurance will be a key component of the next-generation Global Position System ground control capability and, with the completion of some key testing in February, prime contractor Raytheon is working with the Air Force to close vulnerabilities and build a secure system.
The Air Force today successfully launched its second Space Based Infrared System geosynchronous Earth orbit satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL.
A communications issue with the Air Force's first Space Based Infrared Systems satellite in geosynchronous Earth orbit, identified last fall, will not impact next week's scheduled launch of the constellation's second satellite, according to service officials.
The chief of the Air Force's air component headquarters for strategic deterrence said today that as the Eighth Air Force works to implement a 10 percent reduction in flying hours, officials there are realizing that there's no easy way to mitigate a loss of flying time.
While disaggregation of satellite architecture may offer cost savings and better flexibility, industry executives and policy experts said today that the defense industry should take time to analyze that potential before embracing the concept.
The Air Force is looking for funds to avoid the impending closure of its alternative fuels certification office (AFCO), according to a service energy official.