Launch provider SpaceX announced July 11 that the Air Force has deemed all three of the company's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle-class qualifying launches to be successful.
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.
Launch provider SpaceX announced July 11 that the Air Force has deemed all three of the company's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle-class qualifying launches to be successful.
The Air Force on July 10 awarded contracts to the first pool of potential hosted payload providers, selecting 14 companies to compete for future task orders that could be worth as much as $495 million.
The introduction of remotely piloted aircraft into the national airspace has created a need for aircraft like the UH-1N Huey to detect RPAs, according to the commander of the 54th Helicopter Squadron at Minot Air Force Base, ND.
The Air Force announced on July 10 that it has released a much anticipated request for proposals for the Long-Range Strike Bomber.
Raytheon confirmed today that it will not protest the Air Force's award of a $914 million Space Fence contract to Lockheed Martin.
The Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin a $1.8 billion contract to finish building the fifth and sixth Space-Based Infrared Systems Geostationary Orbit (SBIRS GEO) satellites, the Pentagon announced late this afternoon.
The Air Force has offered Raytheon an "extended debriefing" to shed light on the service's selection of competitor Lockheed Martin to build the next-generation Space Fence, according to a Raytheon spokesman.
Nearly all F-35 aircraft have completed a mandatory engine inspection following the discovery last week of an engine leak on an F-35B.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter's concurrency cost estimates have dropped slightly since 2013, from $1.7 billion to $1.6 billion, according to a report obtained this week by InsideDefense.com.
Although the House and Senate Armed Services committees have blocked the Air Force's plans to retire the A-10 Warthog in their respective fiscal year 2015 defense policy legislation, House appropriators this week shut down an amendment to keep the aircraft flying through FY-15.
While the Air Force's Distributed Common Ground System is an "exquisite" network designed to ingest and process intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data and make it available to meet warfighter needs, it is also very maintenance-intensive -- an issue that could impair the service's ability to continue to modernize its ISR infrastructure, according to a top Air Force ISR official.
The Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center this week initiated the first phase of a two-part process to determine whether other companies can compete against prime contractor Lockheed Martin to build the next-generation Global Positioning System satellite vehicle and navigation payload.
The Air Force has awarded a much-anticipated development contract for Space Fence, choosing Lockheed Martin over Raytheon to build the next-generation space situational awareness system.
As part of a larger move to significantly upgrade its Space Situational Awareness infrastructure, the Air Force is changing the way it manages its space observation assets and giving all responsibility for that management to the Space and Missile Systems Center.
The Government Accountability Office has released a report validating the cost analysis used in the Air Force's justification for proposing the cancellation of the C-130 Avionics Modernization Program.
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- The Air Force's top space official wants the service to pursue the production of a fully domestic, next-generation rocket engine.
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- The United Launch Alliance has not yet received any firm indication that its supply of RD-180 engines to power its Atlas V launch vehicle will be cut off, the company's president confirmed on May 19.
The Air Force Research Lab's Space Weather Center of Excellence is asking for industry and academic proposals to advance its understanding of the impact of the space environment on Air Force systems.
The uncertainty surrounding the future of the Atlas V's Russian-built RD-180 engine and an escalating need for the United Launch Alliance to lower its costs in order to meet rising launch competition have pushed ULA to consider the implications of scaling down from two launch vehicle families to just one, a top Boeing space executive told reporters on May 13.
The Air Force has drafted a plan to centralize logistics and installation management functions at its 10 major commands, part of a larger effort to reduce headquarters management costs by at least 20 percent.