The Air Force on Thursday published its final request for proposals for the best-value competition to replace the 1960s-era Bell UH-1N Huey fleet.
Monday, April 29, 2024
Monday, April 29, 2024
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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 on Thursday published its final request for proposals for the best-value competition to replace the 1960s-era Bell UH-1N Huey fleet.
The Air Force announced this week it will terminate its contract with Northrop Grumman to develop the AOC 10.2 upgrade program, opting instead to pursue an AOC Pathfinder effort aimed at incorporating improved development and acquisition practices into the troubled program.
The head of Air Force Air Combat Command wants broader authority to deal with small, unmanned aerial systems after service assets were threatened twice last week.
House defense authorizers are asking the Air Force to detail its plan to retire the legacy E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System fleet and move to a recapitalized platform in a briefing due this fall.
The House Appropriations Committee says more than $43 million of the Air Force's fiscal year 2018 request for Compass Call modifications should instead be sought in FY-19 because protests lodged with the Government Accountability Office have slowed the search for an EC-X platform.
The Air Force is reorganizing its nuclear command, control and communications enterprise in the hope that management changes will lead to a more effective, modernized system.
Some must-reads from this week's Inside the Air Force.
Air Force Space Command is inviting industry to discuss its Space Warfighting Construct and concept of operations at a two-day meeting in August, as the service is making several changes to how it organizes and oversees the domain.
The Air Force is drawing up a directed-energy experimentation schedule to complement its recently signed directed energy flight plan, and a team overseeing that road map's implementation will brief senior service leaders in August.
Some must-reads from this week's issue of Inside the Air Force.
CREECH AIR FORCE BASE, NV -- The commander of a key remotely piloted aircraft wing envisions the ongoing effort to retire the MQ-1B Predator by next spring will help refine the MQ-9 Reaper's mission focus, as the service begins deploying Block 5 Reapers and looking at what's next for the RPA enterprise.
CREECH AIR FORCE BASE, NV -- The success of introducing the Block 5 MQ-9 Reaper at the same time as the MQ-1 Predator sunsets depends in part on how Block 5 performs in combat.
A provision in the House Armed Services Committee's mark of the fiscal year 2018 defense policy bill instructs the Air Force to revert requirements for the Presidential Aircraft Recapitalization program back to those included in the Dec. 14, 2016 systems requirements document, and blocks any further changes unless the Air Force secretary approves them with an assurance to Congress they are needed.
The House Armed Services Committee is joining the latest push to field a replacement for the 1960s-era UH-1N Huey sooner in the committee's mark of the fiscal year 2018 defense policy bill, citing top military officials' comments to illustrate the need for a sole-source contract.
CREECH AIR FORCE BASE, NV -- Looking ahead, the MQ-9 must retain a meaningful combat role as anti-aircraft threats intensify and push unmanned aircraft farther from the battlefield. Col. Case Cunningham, the 432nd Air Wing commander, argues that opens new doors for the RPA as a platform that can enable manned aircraft missions as combat becomes more permissive.
Sierra Nevada Corp. will partner with prime contractor Lockheed Martin, Bombardier and Raytheon to missionize Bombardier's Global 6000 business jet to function as a recapitalized E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System.
The Air Force removed the last intercontinental ballistic missile scheduled to be packed up from its launch facility June 2, finishing the 50-missile drawdown eight months ahead of the deadline required by the New START treaty, service spokesman Capt. Mark Graff confirmed June 22.
CREECH AIR FORCE BASE, NV. -- The Navy is considering a plan to recycle the Air Force's soon-to-be retired MQ-1 Predators for its own use, a Navy spokeswoman confirmed to Inside the Air Force this week.
The House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee is stepping into the Air Force's competition to build the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent with a provision to block the engineering and manufacturing development contract award if the design includes fewer than 15 fixed launch control centers at each missile wing, unless the head of U.S. Strategic Command approves.
The Air Force is about halfway through its first year of formal programmed depot maintenance on the 1960s-era intercontinental ballistic missile fleet, as the service continues its effort to replace the land-based nuclear weapons into the 2030s.