The Air Force will launch a 12-month review of its science and technology portfolio -- work that is meant to define the service's top research priorities and strengthen partnerships with the scientific community.
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Key Issues USAF depot plan LSM design FLRAA program schedule
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 Air Force will launch a 12-month review of its science and technology portfolio -- work that is meant to define the service's top research priorities and strengthen partnerships with the scientific community.
Air Force Global Strike Command is in the early stages of creating a road map to envision how the 20th Air Force, which oversees the military's intercontinental ballistic missiles, will transition to the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent over the next two decades.
Sierra Nevada Corp. is offering the UH-60L Force Hawk, a modernized Black Hawk variant, in the Air Force's competition to replace its aging Bell UH-1N helicopters.
Textron's Scorpion jet holds "intriguing possibilities" for the Air Force's mix of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, the head of Air Combat Command said this week, suggesting the service may be in the market for a cheaper alternative or addition to legacy big-wing ISR platforms.
Bell Helicopter will not pitch an aircraft to replace the UH-1N Huey fleet it built for the Air Force, a company official confirmed to Inside Defense Wednesday.
The AC-130J Ghostrider program will reach initial operational capability this month and will enter combat in about two years, according to the head of Air Force Special Operations Command.
The Air Force has prioritized some of its nuclear command, control and communications programs in its fiscal year 2019 and five-year budget projections, according to Air Force Global Strike Command's top strategic planner.
Air Force Materiel Command is overhauling its maintenance plan for the legacy E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System following service-life tests earlier this year.
The Air Force this week released a request for information to kick off an experimentation campaign in fiscal year 2018 that will inform whether and how the service can cost-effectively buy directed-energy weapons to protect overseas bases from unwanted unmanned aerial systems.
The Air Force is nearing source selection for a bomb designed to replace the legacy BLU-109, a 2,000-pound-class weapon that can damage deeply buried targets.
Boeing will begin preliminary design work for the Presidential Aircraft Recapitalization under a contract worth roughly $600 million awarded Tuesday, the Air Force said this week.
The Air Force is considering new options for the next generation of E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System capabilities that could mean ending the recapitalization effort, a service spokeswoman confirmed to Inside Defense Tuesday.
Among the programs the Defense Department hoped would be spared under the recently passed continuing resolution are a number of Air Force new-starts and production increases, including key munitions programs and cyber resilience efforts.
More than 30 light-attack aircraft that can capture full-motion video will add intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capacity for the Afghan Air Force, a spokesman for the U.S. Air Force's support effort in Afghanistan said this week.
The Air Force has awarded an undefinitized contract to L3 Technologies to move EC-130H Compass Call equipment to the Gulfstream G550 commercial business jet, a service spokeswoman said today.
The Air Force began developmental test for its B61-12 tailkit last month by dropping the unarmed weapon from an F-15E, work that continues alongside a three-year system qualification flight testing program that began in March.
Air Force Research Laboratory officials say they are launching a series of information transfer agreements so commercial industry can mature service-owned technology to control multiple unmanned aerial vehicles at once.
Boeing and the Air Force are now studying the wings of E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System aircraft to determine how much service life remains, after the fuselage proved to be in better health than expected.
The Government Accountability Office this week released an unclassified explanation of its decision to scrap protests filed by Boeing and Bombardier that contested the Air Force's decision to let L3 Technologies choose the next Compass Call platform, among other aspects of the service's effort to re-host the system onto another aircraft.
A top Air Force intelligence official said this week the service plans to be able to sift through and label classified photos and videos taken from intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms like the MQ-9 Reaper and RQ-4 Global Hawk by this time next year, as the result of experiments ongoing with the Defense Department’s Algorithmic Warfare Cross-Functional Team.