Friday, December 6, 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.
Boeing last week was given a sole-source contract worth about $3 million to continue pre-milestone B activities for phase two of the Presidential Aircraft Recapitalization program, the Air Force announced in a Jan. 27 Federal Business Opportunities notice.
Following through on the current Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System acquisition strategy is the fastest way to reach initial and final operational capability, the Air Force argued in a recent report to Congress.
The Air Force is taking part in a study that will look at how multiple services will address future weapons needs, which could include possibilities for a joint strike weapon, a service spokeswoman told Inside the Air Force this week.
A retired Air Force major general who commanded the 20th Air Force and now advises U.S. Strategic Command said this week a hypersonic nuclear missile capability could be considered at a later point, but would not necessarily improve the deterrent offered now by America's intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Piecing together an airspace picture in anti-access, area denial environments that push surveillance aircraft farther away from the battlespace will require a family-of-systems approach rather than one platform that can do it all, according to the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board chair.
Fiscal year 2016 testing on one of the Air Force's key surveillance platforms revealed "difficulty in combining various on- and off-board sensor data into a coherent single track on a consistent basis," according to the director of operational test and evaluation's annual report to Congress published Jan. 10.
Heather Wilson, an Air Force Academy graduate and former Republican congresswoman, is expected to earn the Trump administration's nomination for Air Force secretary, the White House announced Monday morning.
A joint assessment by the Air Force and Navy found pursuing full commonality for the future Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent and the Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missile is "not feasible or practical," the Pentagon told lawmakers in a report delivered last month.
Mounting a laser on an AC-130J gunship would boost the Air Force Special Operations Command's offensive and defensive capabilities, the service's scientific advisors found in a recent study, confirming the command's hope of pursuing a dual-purpose weapon down the road.
General Atomics will build four Block 5 MQ-9 Reapers for Spain under a contract worth nearly $57 million by early 2019, according to a recent Defense Department announcement.
Testing the most recent configuration of air-transportable all-terrain rescue vehicles is expected to begin this spring, the Air Force said last week.
Remotely piloted aircraft operators could be newly based at Shaw Air Force Base, SC, which this week was named the Air Force's preferred location for an additional MQ-9 Reaper pilot unit, starting in fiscal year 2018.
Block 5 MQ-9 Reapers are not operationally effective nor operationally suitable for all-weather hunter missions because the unmanned aerial system frequently aborts and breaks, the Pentagon's weapons testing office said this week in its annual report to Congress.
The Missile Defense Agency's testing of airborne sensors on MQ-9 Reapers has proven the multi-spectral system "can close the fire control loop very quickly," a spokesman said last week, as the agency works with General Atomics to configure a Block 5 extended-range Reaper for missile defense missions.
The Air Force will order 512 guidance and control sections for Raytheon's Sidewinder missiles over five years, the service said in a Federal Business Opportunities notice this week.
The Air Force is looking at armored ground vehicles to replace its Humvees that defend missile-launch sites, according to a request for information posted last month and subsequent news reports.
Northrop Grumman has delayed its test flight of the MS-177 long-range imaging sensor on the RQ-4 Global Hawk to later this month, after it was originally scheduled for late December.
The Air Force this week floated its $6.9 billion request for proposals for the E-8C Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System recapitalization effort's engineering and manufacturing development phase, calling for an open competition to win a hybrid cost-plus and fixed-price contract after months of debating the preferred acquisition strategy with Congress.
Air Force Air Combat Command is calling on contractors to protect its airfields in Afghanistan using unmanned aerial surveillance, according to a sources-sought notice posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website this week.
The Air Force is expanding its search for cheap, disposable intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms to include low-cost sensors, according to a request for information issued last week.