Friday, April 19, 2024
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 is urgently seeking contractors that can train F-35 Joint Strike Fighter pilots to avoid "dense advanced surface-to-air missile threats," in response to last month's directive from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis that four fighter jet fleets need to be 80 percent mission-capable by the end of fiscal year 2019.
A fast-tracked Air Force initiative to build an airborne laser prototype will proceed under an Army-sponsored other transaction agreement vehicle that moves from solicitation to contract within three months.
Military software development programs need more flexibility when it comes to judging their level of cyber risk, the Air Force's cybersecurity innovation director said Tuesday.
The Air Force's program executive office for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and special-operations forces could turn to the service's new "cash for ideas" initiative to bolster a small-dollar electronic-warfare technology development program.
Cuts to two Air Force munitions efforts are tucked into Congress' response to an "omnibus" reprogramming request the Defense Department sent this summer.
Senate appropriators deferred the Air Force's request to shift nearly $87 million into the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent program because the service no longer needs the money, a congressional source said this week.
Airborne directed-energy weapons could soon be used to take out surface-to-air or air-to-air missiles as well as ground targets, as the Air Force plans a field experiment campaign to explore those options in fiscal year 2020.
An effort to outfit the Air Force's large remotely piloted aircraft with autonomous sense-and-avoid software will rely on agile development and could use rapid-acquisition authorities offered by Congress.
NATIONAL HARBOR, MD -- Air Force staff in two theaters are preparing scenarios for how they could rapidly deploy and use temporary bases in case of war with Russia or China, a service official told Inside Defense today.
A Defense Department research and development gathering in California this spring will focus on sensors, weapons and autonomy, according to a recent Air Force notice.
The Air Force needs another Bombardier business jet to bolster the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node fleet, the service said in an Oct. 15 notice.
New efforts to mature the Air Force's AgilePod on a range of legacy intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft could make the modular sensor carriage combat-ready within the next two years.
The Air Force recently released its classified request for proposals for the Mark 21A program's three-year technology-maturation and risk-reduction phase, which will develop a reentry vehicle for the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent.
Air Force officials are considering ways to increase sustainment for the service's fleet of C-135 intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft to prepare them for peer conflict, as the platforms face a slew of engine and structural problems.
Deputy Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan said a new aircraft readiness directive ordering the Air Force and the Navy to achieve 80 percent readiness rates for four key tactical fighter jets by the end of this fiscal year will help the Pentagon prove to Congress it is effectively spending a recent funding boost and make the case that further relief from statutory budget caps is warranted.
Lockheed Martin recently received another contract worth nearly $391 million to build its 16th lot of AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles for the Air Force, seven months after the service planned to award those funds.
Sikorsky and Sierra Nevada Corp. confirmed today they will not protest the Air Force's decision to replace the Bell UH-1N Huey with Boeing and Leonardo Helicopter's MH-139, freeing the service to move ahead with the long-awaited procurement. (UPDATED)
The Air Force this month will take its first look at how to use portable laser and microwave weapons to defeat unmanned aerial vehicles, in a month-long experiment starting Oct. 9 where Raytheon is the only participant.
A new partnership between the Air Force and BAE Systems aims to improve the production, cost and efficiency of gallium nitride chips as the compound is further established as the standard in military systems manufacturing.
Microsoft and AT&T will team with the Air Force on a three-year experimentation campaign pursuing a new approach to basic services like email and more reliable access to classified and unclassified Defense Department data, the Air Force recently announced.