The Air Force is tracking several risk areas in development of the Three Dimensional Expeditionary Long-Range Radar, even as it works toward making a new contract award sometime this spring.
Thursday, May 2, 2024
Thursday, May 2, 2024
Key Issues HADES deployment SAOC contract FORGE framework
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.
The Air Force is tracking several risk areas in development of the Three Dimensional Expeditionary Long-Range Radar, even as it works toward making a new contract award sometime this spring.
As the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program braces for at least a two-month delay to the Air Force's initial operational capability, prime contractor Lockheed Martin and engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney are working to accelerate testing schedules and increase margin to avoid further delay.
Last week's revelation that the Air Force plans to fly the F-35 for an additional six years through 2070 had been in process for several years and relates back to a beddown plan introduced in the service's fiscal year 2012 budget.
As concerns grow about threats to the Global Positioning System constellation, the Air Force Research Laboratory is developing plans to launch an experimental system to test advanced, resilient GPS technologies.
Some must-reads from this week's issue of Inside the Air Force.
Higher budget priorities have delayed the Air Force's production plan for the next-generation T-X trainer, pushing full operational capability from fiscal year 2032 to 2034.
The F-35 joint program office has established a "Red Team" of Air Force, Navy and academic experts tasked with validating the root cause of a sensor stability issue that has caused delays to testing and fielding of the program's latest software block.
A decision by the Air Force to extend the intended service life of the F-35 by six years added $45 billion to the program's most recent life cycle operation and sustainment cost estimate -- an increase the program's top official says masks a 2 to 4 percent drop in real sustainment costs.
The Pentagon's newest F-35 Joint Strike Fighter cost analysis projects the program's total acquisition cost at $379 billion, $12.1 billion less than last year's projection.
As the Air Force continues to develop a security plan for information related to the B-21 Long-Range Strike Bomber, some lawmakers and defense analysts are skeptical of the service's claims that releasing the B-21 contract value could cause potential adversaries to learn key information about the highly veiled system's capabilities.
As Lockheed Martin's advanced research and technology arm works with the Air Force to help identify sixth-generation capabilities, the company is also seeking direction on the service's plans for long-term modernization of its fifth-generation fleets.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) wants Defense Secretary Ash Carter to investigate comments made by a former executive from the United Launch Alliance, who resigned this week after making controversial statements implying the government had gone out of its way to favor ULA over its competitor SpaceX.
The Air Force may seek to revive its last grounded legacy weather satellite to mitigate last month's on-orbit failure of another satellite in the constellation.
The Air Force may have awarded a multibillion C-17 sustainment contract without determining whether the services were being provided at “fair and reasonable prices,” according to a Defense Department inspector general audit released Monday.
The F-35 joint program office does not think it can mitigate a potential two-month delay to the Air Force's Aug. 1 objective date for initial operational capability, the program's top officer said Thursday.
Although the Air Force will need future funding to pull the trigger on a series of commercial satellite communication pathfinder efforts, some service leaders say they may be able to learn the most important lessons simply from planning those projects.
Here are a few must-reads from this week's issue of Inside the Air Force.
Pratt & Whitney's F135 engine may have a new application in the B-21 bomber, according to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program executive officer.
A recent Pentagon-level deep-dive review of the Air Force's next-generation Global Positioning System ground system did not yield a new service cost position as was expected, according to the service's top uniformed acquisition officer.
Preliminary findings from an ongoing Government Accountability Office study reveal that the Air Force's recently completed analysis of alternatives for future weather systems may include incomplete assessments of two high-priority capabilities -- theater weather imagery and cloud characterization.