A forthcoming "deep-dive" review of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter's cost could serve as a model for other major acquisition programs, according to the Pentagon's director of defense pricing.
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Wednesday, April 24, 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.
A forthcoming "deep-dive" review of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter's cost could serve as a model for other major acquisition programs, according to the Pentagon's director of defense pricing.
The Air Force announced Monday it has lifted flight restrictions on the F-35A after validating fixes to the jet's seat and helmet that will allow pilots weighing between 103 and 245 pounds to safely fly and eject from the fifth-generation fighter.
Boeing today announced that if it wins the Air Force's $16 billion competition to build the next-generation T-X training jet, it will assemble the aircraft at its St. Louis facility, where the program would support approximately 1,800 jobs.
Some must-reads from this week's issue of Inside the Air Force.
The Defense Department has spent the last several years shaping a plan to improve resilience across the space enterprise and officials said this week the fiscal year 2018 budget request will include "measured steps" toward integrating that strategy.
As the Air Force continues developmental planning for a new Enterprise Space Battle Management Command and Control system, the service expects to have an updated cost estimate by the end of the fiscal year.
The Air Force has commissioned a task force to evaluate its requirements for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities in support of space operations.
Senior Air Force leaders met May 3 to discuss ways to speed up the service's hypersonics research and development, the service said May 9.
Aerojet Rocketdyne announced this week it completed a successful critical design review for its AR1 rocket engine development and expects to begin full-scale testing next year. Meanwhile, the company is awaiting a decision from the Air Force on whether it will provide a second wave of development funding for the effort.
The Air Force is still seeking a $120 million boost to support continued development of the next-generation GPS operational control segment and sent a reprogramming request to Congress last week after appropriators did not fund the effort in the fiscal year 2017 defense spending bill, an official confirmed to Inside Defense.
Aerojet Rocketdyne announced today its AR1 engine has passed a critical design review.
The Air Force is aiming to release a final request for proposals in August for its next phase of investment in new launch systems -- a step toward reducing reliance on Russian propulsion technology and assuring a long-term competitive national security space launch market.
The Air Force Sustainment Center is working now to prepare a depot maintenance infrastructure for the KC-46 and expects a customized maintenance plan from prime contractor Boeing in November.
The Air Force Sustainment Center is still waiting for guidance from the Pentagon to implement a provision in the Fiscal Year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act that would offer a temporary boost to its ability to hire much-needed maintenance employees.
The Defense Department's recent $1.37 billion award to Lockheed Martin for F-35 long-lead materials is the first contracting action to support the joint program office's block buy and economic order quantity strategy, a spokesman confirmed May 3.
An executive order to re-establish a National Space Council is "imminent," a senior space policy adviser to President Trump's transition team said this week.
House and Senate appropriators are concerned the F-35 joint program office is not awarding contracts for the jets they fund each year "in a timely manner" and are pointing to the program executive officer's contracting strategy as the problem.
SpaceX is slated to launch its first national security space satellite this weekend, a classified National Reconnaissance Office payload.
The Air Force announced this week it will invite computer security specialists to participate in a "Hack the Air Force" event from May 30 through June 23 as part of a larger campaign to "further operationalize" the cyber domain.
The chairman of the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee told Inside the Air Force this week he is working to draft "meaningful language" to include in fiscal year 2018 and 2019 defense policy legislation that would put the Defense Department on a 10-year path toward establishing a standalone "space force."