Saturday, May 25, 2024
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.
Among the programs the Defense Department hoped would be spared under the recently passed continuing resolution are a number of Air Force new-starts and production increases, including key munitions programs and cyber resilience efforts.
Highlights from this week's issue of Inside the Air Force.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program won't begin feeling the effect of a fiscal year 2018 continuing resolution until next spring, the program's director told reporters this week.
F-35 Program Executive Officer Vice Adm. Mat Winter told reporters this week he expects the time frame to complete negotiations for the Joint Strike Fighter's 11th low-rate initial production lot will be much shorter than the LRIP 10 deal, which took more than a year to finalize.
The new head of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program expects to have approval of a new plan by late October that will allow it to continuously develop software capabilities following the completion of the post-system development and demonstration phase.
The F-35 joint program office is considering adapting its strategy for the post-system development and demonstration phase and Block 4 followon modernization, a move that could change the way it develops and delivers new software capabilities, Inside Defense has learned.
The Defense Department will kick off a yearlong excursion in October to determine the true price of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and will spend the next year working with prime and sub-tier suppliers to develop a strategy to inject competition and incentivize affordability into the department’s most expensive program.
The Air Force is making progress on a three-year effort to evaluate 50 legacy systems for cyber vulnerabilities and is finalizing assessments for the first 17 systems it reviewed.
Lockheed Martin is slated to deliver six new GPS Monitor Station Technology Improvement Capability receivers by mid-September, part of a larger effort to modernize the legacy ground control system.
An Air Force lab focused on partnering with industry and academia to better exploit remote sensing data plans to demonstrate an experiment that could allow the service to use information from the Space-Based Infrared System to supplement weather satellite capability.
The Air Force has lifted temporary flight restrictions placed on F-35A pilots at Luke Air Force Base, AZ, after a string of physiological incidents were reported at the installation.
The Air Force announced Friday it has named Brig. Gen. Mike Koscheski to lead its Aircrew Crisis Task Force aimed at helping the service address its pilot shortage.
Lockheed Martin expects to test its partial prototype of an advanced Electro-Optical Targeting System for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter by the end of this year, but is awaiting more detail from the joint program office on follow-on modernization requirements before determining whether and when a full prototype will fly.
Language in the Fiscal Year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act restricting the use of funds for the Weather System Follow-on program will delay a contract award by at least one quarter, the Air Force confirmed this week.
Boeing last week received a $7 billion boost to its C-17 Globemaster III sustainment contract, owed largely to an increase in foreign military sales, the Air Force has confirmed.
The Air Force expects to release a request for proposals next month to replace the longerons on its C- and D-model F-15s -- a key part of its plans to extend the jet's service life.
The Air Force is on track to launch Friday its fifth Operationally Responsive Space mission -- a Space-Based Space Surveillance System gapfiller satellite that service officials say will demonstrate a number of technology and rapid acquisition practices that can be incorporated into other space programs.
A classified change to the Air Force's acquisition strategy for the B-2 Defensive Management System upgrade will not significantly impact the program's time line, a service spokesman confirmed this week.
Lockheed Martin is making progress on a bridge capability that would allow the legacy GPS ground system to operate new GPS III satellites until the delayed Next-Generation Operational Control Segment is delivered.
By the end of the year, F-35 maintainers will have access to 100 new virtual training modules through Lockheed Martin's Aircraft Systems Maintenance Trainer.