Concerns about a potential supplier issued caused the Air Force to delay indefinitely the Oct. 3 launch of the third Space-Based Infrared System satellite.
Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Wednesday, May 8, 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.
Concerns about a potential supplier issued caused the Air Force to delay indefinitely the Oct. 3 launch of the third Space-Based Infrared System satellite.
As industry awaits the "any-day-now" release of a Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System recapitalization request for proposals, the Air Force this week issued another draft solicitation for the program, noting that the final version is in coordination.
Some must-reads from this week's Inside the Air Force.
The Air Force's next enterprise-wide capability study will focus on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and multidomain command-and-control operations, according to written testimony from the service's top uniformed officer.
ST. LOUIS -- Boeing's clean-sheet bid for the Air Force's next-generation training system relies heavily on existing technology and focuses on meeting threshold requirements in order to control costs -- even as the service's most recent draft solicitation indicates it may offer incentives for designs that exceed baseline capabilities.
ST. LOUIS -- As Boeing works to incorporate a second shift on its Joint Direct Attack Munition line and bring annual production to 36,500 weapons, the company's vice president for weapons and missile systems said this week that adding a third shift could increase that yearly rate to 50,000.
The Air Force last week certified to Congress that F-35As delivered in fiscal year 2018 will have full combat capability -- to include Block 3F software and weapons carriage.
The head of the F-35 program told a panel of industry and government officials this week that the Joint Strike Fighter is "a classic example" of how inadequate initial planning around intellectual property and data rights can hinder a program as it looks to pursue new sustainment or modernization options.
The director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said this week he would like to expand a pilot program aimed at allowing NATO member countries and organizations to purchase defense capabilities essentially as a consortium through foreign military sales.
The Air Force has indicated it plans to solicit bidders this year for a key capability to fly on its Weather System Follow-on constellation.
The F-35 program executive officer said Sept. 7 he expects to award a multibillion-dollar payment to Lockheed Martin in the next few weeks to cover some of the jet manufacturer's costs for low-rate initial production Lot 10, which has been caught up in a drawn-out negotiations process.
The Air Force's growing shortage of fighter pilots could impede its ability to meet international pilot training requirements, according to the service's deputy under secretary for international affairs.
The Air Force last week announced that it has met milestone A criteria for its new Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent.
SpaceX has invited the Air Force to participate in its investigation into the cause of a Sept. 1 explosion that occurred on a Falcon 9 launch vehicle.
Highlights from this week's issue of Inside the Air Force:
The Air Force Research Laboratory's 10th Technology Directorate -- established in May to focus on Third Offset Strategy technology -- has been meeting with industry this summer and is planning two classified engagements in 2017.
The Air Force confirmed this week it has initiated a limited-source competition to procure new advanced electronically scanned array radars for a portion of its F-16 fleet.
After successfully demonstrating in February that a key U-2 electro-optical sensor can fly on the Global Hawk unmanned aircraft, Northrop Grumman is on track to flight test a second payload, the Optical Bar Camera, late next month.
The Air Force will provide an update later this month on its work to develop innovative solutions to improve rocket propulsion performance -- work that could feed into a separate effort to develop a new, domestically-produced rocket engine.
A new office tasked with assessing aircraft being pitched to foreign military customers is giving the Air Force a close-up look at the capability investments companies are making in non-Defense Department programs.