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.
Kratos' Valkyrie, in development for the Air Force's Low-Cost Attritable Strike Unmanned Aerial System Demonstration, completed the aircraft's critical design review earlier this month and is working toward flight tests by the third quarter of 2018, a company official told Inside the Air Force this week.
A recent justification-and-approval document for a server the Air Force is buying as part of the Air Operations Center Weapon System pathfinder sheds light on the service’s vision for the system’s networked cloud.
The Defense Department will extend the Joint Direct Attack Munition program to allow delivery of another five lots to Air Force, Navy and foreign customers by May 2025, the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center told Boeing in a letter sent last month.
The Air Force will continue mulling the possibility of merging the 24th and 25th Air Forces into a joint group for cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and electronic warfare operations at a senior leadership's Corona meeting Oct. 30 to Nov. 3, a service spokesman told Inside the Air Force this week.
Lockheed Martin will not protest the Air Force's decision to award Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent technology-maturation and risk-reduction contracts to Boeing and Northrop Grumman, according to a company spokeswoman.
The Government Accountability Office last week denied Boeing and Bombardier's protests of the Air Force's acquisition strategy in the competition to find a new platform to host EC-130H Compass Call equipment.
The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center is contesting the Government Accountability Office's allegation that nuclear command, control and communications programs are improperly planned, saying the weapons center is developing a new scheduling approach to NC3 engineering reviews.
Raytheon will build its next round of 43-inch, precision-guided Griffin missiles for the Air Force for nearly $105 million, through what appears to be the company's largest indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract to date for the AGM-176 program.
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, MA -- The Air Force and its industry partners are moving forward with efforts to reshape Air Operations Center Weapon System modernization, despite congressional hesitation to fund the new pathfinder and remaining questions about how planning, management and oversight will unfold.
Lockheed Martin and Raytheon will split about $1.8 billion to mature their proposed designs and begin prototyping for the Air Force's next-generation, air-launched nuclear cruise missile over nearly five years, the Air Force announced Wednesday.
Boeing and Northrop Grumman will progress to the technology-maturation and risk-reduction phase of the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent competition under contracts worth more than $300 million apiece, the Defense Department announced Monday.
The Presidential Aircraft Recapitalization program office and Boeing are working on ways to drive costs down during the 18-month preliminary design phase, which is slated to begin after a contract award in September.
The Air Force announced last week it plans to award Boeing an additional $30 million to continue Small Diameter Bomb I integration support.
The Air Force Research Laboratory, Air Force Global Strike Command and the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center are seeking ideas for nuclear command, control and communications "to define the art of the possible for future NC3 architectures and survivable and enduring communication systems," according to a recent broad agency announcement.
The Joint Requirements Oversight Council is delaying validation that the RQ-4 Global Hawk's capabilities are on par with those of the U-2, as the Defense Department waits to see whether Congress scraps that certification requirement in the final fiscal year 2018 defense policy bill.
The Air Force plans to mature extended-range technology for its Block 5 MQ-9 Reapers under an undefinitized contract action issued March 30, a service spokesman said this week.
Defense analysts say the Air Force's decision to buy two jetliners left behind by a bankrupt Russian airline to recapitalize the Air Force One fleet won't make much difference for the multi-billion-dollar program's bottom line.
Peter Kim, the Air Force's chief information security officer, said Wednesday the service will look at ways to give airmen more flexibility within the Risk Management Framework while the Air Force begins a sweeping review of its guidance.
The Defense Department last week sent additional classified guidance to the services and installations to further flesh out how the military can defend against small unmanned aerial systems, according to a press release issued Monday.
The Air Force is on track to employ 100 enlisted airmen as RQ-4 Global Hawk pilots by March 2020, the service told congressional leaders in a report last month.