As the Air Force prepares to allow enlisted airmen to fly the Global Hawk remotely piloted aircraft, the service has decided to "cast a wider net" and allow all airmen from all specialties to be eligible to serve as pilots.
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.
As the Air Force prepares to allow enlisted airmen to fly the Global Hawk remotely piloted aircraft, the service has decided to "cast a wider net" and allow all airmen from all specialties to be eligible to serve as pilots.
The Air Force Research Laboratory this week awarded Northrop Grumman a $39 million contract to develop an advanced beam-control system that will support efforts to integrate directed-energy technology on an Air Force fighter jet by 2020.
The Air Force's next solicitation for Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle services will likely be for an experimental Space Test Program mission to launch a satellite capable of detecting nuclear detonations.
Raytheon's plans to upgrade the Air Force's Global Hawk ground control segment with a more modular, open architecture could facilitate a more common ground architecture for unmanned air platforms across the services.
The Air Force will likely not make a decision about whether to pursue launching the last legacy Defense Meteorological Satellite Program space vehicle until after a meeting next month with the Joint Requirements Oversight Committee.
A new Government Accountability Office report criticizes the Air Force for not properly evaluating the negative impact of its plan to divest the A-10 and gives credence to lawmakers' complaints that the service acted too hastily in proposing retirement of the beloved close-air-support jet.
The Air National Guard and Air Combat Command are working to develop a plan to boost the Guard's F-16 training capacity and meet a requirement to provide at least one Mission Training Center at each of the Guard's 13 F-16 wings.
The C-5 program office anticipates Congress in its fiscal year 2017 defense policy legislation will release the Air Force from a requirement that dictates it place all retiring C-5s into recallable storage.
The Defense Science Board is recommending that the Air Force Research Laboratory consider launching two new programs that could improve the service's ability to screen and fuze intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data and plan air campaigns more rapidly by introducing greater autonomy.
The Air Force acknowledged in a recent report to Congress that its plan to address impending weather requirement gaps does carry risks, particularly its reliance on international and civil partners for some of those capabilities.
Some must-reads from this week's isssue of Inside the Air Force.
KC-46 prime contractor Boeing is moving ahead with tanker production after the Air Force this week awarded the company a $2.8 billion contract for low-rate initial production lots 1 and 2.
Industry is anticipating a request for proposals for the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System recapitalization program will be released next week, sources confirmed, after the Air Force's recent announcement that the program is simply awaiting a signed acquisition decision memorandum before releasing the solicitation.
Air Force Space Command anticipates that the need for improved sensor capabilities, on-orbit sustainment, better space access and innovative ground capabilities will make up some of its top challenges over the next three decades and will inform its contributions to the Defense Department's Third Offset Strategy.
The Air Force will host a "collaboration day" later this month for munitions developers interested in designing, developing, manufacturing and testing a prototype, subsonic, conventional cruise missile.
The Air Force Research Laboratory is tracking toward a 2018 demonstration of a new live, virtual, constructive training capability that will enable more realistic training environments as the service brings more fifth-generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighters into its fleet.
Some must-reads from this week's Inside the Air Force.
As the Air Force considers the fate of the troubled next-generation GPS ground-control segment, which is moving through a Nunn-McCurdy review process, prime contractor Raytheon is focused on keeping the program on schedule and meeting development milestones.
The Air Force announced this week it will up its retention bonus for remotely piloted aircraft pilots from $25,000 to $35,000 -- part of a larger effort to boost a deflated career field that has been overworked as demand for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability continues to grow.
An Air Force effort to involve industry in the early planning stages for an upcoming wideband satellite communications analysis of alternatives has revealed to the service that, at least in this mission area, quite a bit of overlap exists between the needs of commercial and military users.