Sunday, April 28, 2024
Key Issues Optical clocks Prototype funding SPAFORGEN
Rachel Cohen was managing editor for Inside the Air Force until January 2019. She previously covered the public health insurance marketplaces for Inside Health Policy and primary, secondary and higher education at the Frederick News-Post in Frederick County, Maryland. She graduated from American University in 2013 with a bachelor's degree in international studies and journalism.
The commander overseeing the Air Force's fledgling "Shadow Operations Center" at Nellis Air Force Base, NV, recently told Inside the Air Force he wants to choose the group's first project within the month but that the effort could be hamstrung by funding and personnel shortages.
The Air Force will be forced to push back procurement of 30 B61-12 tailkit assembly trainers if Congress enacts another short-term continuing resolution this week, according to a service spokeswoman.
Shaw Air Force Base, SC, expects to fly its first MQ-9 combat line by early spring, and officials there told Inside the Air Force this week they hope service leadership will continue their commitment to sustained funding and flexible planning as the new Reaper control group stands up.
Northrop Grumman completed its systems requirements review for the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent in October and will study more design tradeoffs to help the Air Force shape the acquisition, a company spokesman recently confirmed to Inside the Air Force.
A leaked draft of the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review indicates the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will create a plan to reform nuclear command, control and communications governance, which could shift how the Air Force oversees much of that enterprise.
Shaw Air Force Base, SC, announced this week it received service Secretary Heather Wilson's approval to stand up a new MQ-9 Reaper group over the next four years, after passing an environmental impact study last year.
The Air Force, about halfway into its E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System upgrade program, wants to bring the platform up to speed with open mission systems standards.
Aurora's Orion long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle will take steps toward deployment over the next two years, although the Air Force has not created a formal program of record.
The Government Accountability Office recently dismissed Raytheon's formal protest that the Air Force unfairly excluded the company's "Archimedes" wide-area surveillance radar from the E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System recapitalization competition.
The Air Force marked the end of 2017 by issuing multiple foreign military sales contracts for programs including Boeing's Small Diameter Bomb Increment I, Raytheon's Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile and Northrop Grumman's Large Aircraft Infrared Counter-Measures system.
A new consortium of defense contractors is in the works to advance autonomy technologies in collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory.
The Air Force's intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance chief said Thursday an ISR flight plan to debut this spring will chart how the service can use current and future assets through 2035 including Aurora's developmental unmanned aircraft, Orion.
Kirtland Air Force Base, NM, home to the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, will hold a nuclear deterrence operations research and development meeting with industry May 7-11, according to a recent notice.
Running Afghanistan's Air Force will cost $13.2 billion through fiscal year 2023, largely due to a $10 billion modernization effort that will grow its inventory to more than 300 aircraft, according to the Pentagon's biannual report to Congress on the embattled country's military progress.
Lockheed Martin last week was awarded $961 million to sustain and modernize around 700 Sniper advanced targeting pods for the Air Force over the next five years.
Air Force researchers may launch technical studies to further understand current and future multidomain command-and-control technologies, according to a recent request for information.
Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman each secured $110 million contracts to prototype and demonstrate a low-cost, subsonic "Gray Wolf" cruise missile for the Air Force Research Laboratory, out of a pool of seven companies.
The Air Force says Northrop Grumman hasn't improved the quality or speed of maintenance on E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System jets despite efforts to nudge the company along, although Northrop argues it is taking steps to better its workflow.
Industry this week noted progress on a slate of Air Force weapons -- including two early-stage programs -- the Defense Department wants to add onto aircraft in the next few years.
The Air Force is gathering ideas from industry to shape the next generation of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities as it retires the MQ-1 Predator and looks to the future of its big-wing battle management, command-and-control and ISR platforms.