Highlights for this week's edition of Inside the Air Force:
Monday, April 21, 2025
Monday, April 21, 2025
Key Issues Overhauling the FAR Troops in South Korea Overland AI
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.
Highlights for this week's edition of Inside the Air Force:
The Air Force on Tuesday awarded the coveted Long-Range Strike Bomber development and production contract to Northrop Grumman, overlooking a team bid from Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
A contingent of Colorado lawmakers sent a letter to top officials at the Defense Department and National Reconnaissance Office late last week in support of an effort to create a new interagency space operations center.
The Air Force is "really, really close" to awarding a contract for the Long-Range Strike Bomber, according to the service's top acquisition executive.
Lockheed Martin confirmed Oct. 21 that it has reached a verbal agreement with the Air Force on a multiyear contract to purchase 83 C-130Js.
Highlights from this week's Inside the Air Force.
An internal Air Force review has identified five root causes of developmental delays to the next-generation Global Positioning System ground segment and calls out prime contractor Raytheon's lack of cybersecurity experience as a significant contributor to those delays.
Whether the Defense Department is successful at building and procuring a Long-Range Strike Bomber is dependent largely on the level of control the Air Force has to manage the program, according to an American Enterprise Institute report released this week.
In a move that could have major implications for the two companies competing for Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle contracts, the Defense Department is not seeking a national security waiver to congressional restrictions placed on the use of the Russian-made RD-180 rocket engine, according to a department spokeswoman.
The Defense Department is on track to spend approximately $6.2 billion on its core space situational awareness systems through fiscal year 2020, according to a Government Accountability Office briefing published this week.
Highlights from this week's edition of Inside the Air Force:
The Air Force is processing a national security waiver that, if accepted by Congress, would allow United Launch Alliance to bid for what is supposed to be the first competitive national security space launch since 2006.
F-35 program officials are not concerned about significant impacts under a short-term continuing resolution, but told InsideDefense.com this week that a long-term CR would be "detrimental" to plans to ramp up Joint Strike Fighter production.
The Air Force on Wednesday issued a solicitation for launch services for the first next-generation Global Positioning System satellite, marking the service's first national security space launch competition since 2006.
An award for the Long-Range Strike Bomber program could still be a few months away, according to a top Air Force acquisition official.
The first militarized KC-46 had its inaugural test flight today, taking off from Paine Field, WA, at approximately 4:24 p.m.
The Air Force is devising a funding strategy to replace its decades-old B-52 engine with a more energy-efficient alternative, and expects the plan will serve as a case study for future capital improvement projects that are often derailed because they require significant upfront investment.
The Government Accountability Office has validated the Air Force's claim that competitive prototyping for its F-15 Eagle Passive/Active Warning and Survivability System program would be too expensive.
Air Force officials said this week that the troubled next-generation Global Positioning System ground segment development program is "not out of the woods yet," and the service has backup mechanisms in place should the effort fail.
Boeing revealed on Wednesday that it has rejected a proposal from Aerojet Rocketdyne to purchase United Launch Alliance.