Monday, April 29, 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 vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff last week made the case for separating nuclear command and control from the military's push toward a multidomain system, which the Air Force is exploring through an Enterprise Capability Collaboration Team study slated to end this fall.
Boeing and Northrop Grumman are making closing arguments for their Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent designs as the companies prepare for a contract award by the end of the fiscal year.
The Air Force has awarded a contract to Boeing to buy two 747-8 jets that will comprise the next presidential aircraft fleet, but will not disclose how much the service is paying despite touting the move as a cost-saving measure.
The Air Force is preparing to open the question of integrating autonomy into aircraft and computer systems to industry through a recent broad agency announcement that leverages the service's earlier work in that field, an Air Force Research Laboratory official told Inside the Air Force this week.
U.S. Strategic Command is broadening its previous guidance on countering unmanned aerial systems to include space and missile defense assets.
A recent letter from the Aerospace Industries Association to congressional leaders requests that Congress include strong, meaningful acquisition and contracting reforms in the fiscal year 2018 defense policy bill to put companies of all sizes on a level playing field and allow for more flexibility to address the military's needs.
A recent Government Accountability Office analysis recommends the Defense Department make its future financial reports on nuclear costs more complete and transparent, alleging murky accounting could make it more difficult for Congress to understand how spending estimates are created and to assess the long-term affordability of nuclear sustainment and modernization.
The KC-46 recently proved it could operate safely in electromagnetic fields, passing a key hurdle for the new tanker program, Boeing said in a July 27 press release.
Some must-reads from this week's issue of Inside the Air Force.
Lockheed Martin inked the $86.5 million sole-source production contract for its first lot of Long-Range Anti-Ship Missiles this week, according to a July 26 company press release.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein said Wednesday he plans to release a paper with service Secretary Heather Wilson in the next couple of weeks to set five priorities for the future: restoring readiness, cost-effective modernization, space innovation, airman and leadership training and strengthening alliances.
The Air Force wants to start work this year to put a hypersonic, conventional strike weapon on fighter and bomber aircraft, according to a July 21 Federal Business Opportunities notice. The service plans to award a contract to one of five companies in the first quarter of fiscal year 2018.
The Defense Department is asking Congress to reprogram $36.1 million to pay for a new "pathfinder" approach to upgrade the Air and Space Operations Center Weapon System, after the service announced last week it would cancel the troubled AOC 10.2 development contract with Northrop Grumman.
A Lockheed Martin spokeswoman told Inside the Air Force this week the company will have options ready for Congress and the Air Force if Senate language telling the service to explore the idea of an unmanned U-2 is approved in the final fiscal year 2018 defense policy bill.
Gulfstream is reinforcing its position in the search for a new platform to replace the EC-130H for the Compass Call mission, as the Government Accountability Office mulls two bid protests filed by Boeing and Bombardier and L3 Technologies waits to see if it can lead the Compass Call effort on behalf of the Air Force.
The Air Force is working on a program deviation report for the Joint Direct Attack Munition program because increased demand is causing excessive procurement costs, according to its 2016 selected acquisition report, obtained by Inside Defense this week.
The Air Force is expected to field software improvements to the E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System Block 40/45 upgrade starting this year, though none will affect the program's cost, schedule or performance, according to a selected acquisition report obtained by Inside Defense this week.
A top Air Force acquisition official told Inside the Air Force this week the service is doing what it can to speed up the effort to transfer EC-130H Compass Call mission equipment to a new platform and is reviewing how to prove the viability of a new Compass Call platform to comply with Congress' wishes while still moving the program along as quickly as possible.
Rapid acquisition language included in the Senate Armed Services Committee's report on the fiscal year 2018 defense policy bill released this week could put lawmakers and the Air Force at odds over the UH-1N Huey replacement effort. (UPDATED)
The House Armed Services Committee wants the Air Force to explore cheaper dual-mode weapons even as Raytheon's tri-mode GBU-53, the Small Diameter Bomb II, prepares to reach initial operational capability on the F-15E in fiscal year 2019.