Monday, September 28, 2020
Key Issues Boeing's NGI bid CH-53K production Project Convergence
Sara Sirota is an associate editor for Inside the Air Force. Previously, she reported for The Hill and The Cazenovia Republican. She has a master's degree in security studies from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and a bachelor's degree in political science from Colgate University.
The Air Force is preparing an environmental impact statement on plans to dispose the legacy Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile system and deploy its replacement, the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, according to a notice posted on the Federal Register today.
The Air Force has awarded Boeing a $2.2 billion contract for guaranteed minimum Lot 15 production of the precision-guided Small Diameter Bomb I.
Air Force Materiel Command is considering sending industry a second request for information to support market research into the multiple roles an MQ-9 Reaper replacement, or MQ-Next, can perform as a node within the joint all-domain command and control infrastructure.
The Pentagon has announced a new list of contractors that have received indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts worth up to $950 million to support the Air Force's Advanced Battle Management System program.
The Air Force and Lockheed Martin have begun negotiating a lower unit cost for the next batch of commoditized F-16 fighter jets they anticipate supplying through last month's novel foreign military sale contract to a new group of customers, sources tell Inside Defense.
Air Force acquisition executive Will Roper is looking to field Advanced Battle Management System capabilities with full operational use across combatant commands starting at the fourth on-ramp in Europe, he told reporters today.
The Air Force has tested the ability of new sensor and missile technology to thwart a fleet of small unmanned aerial systems while integrated with an emerging command-and-control network at the large-scale Apollyon exercise last month, the service revealed today.
The Government Accountability Office has raised concerns that the National Nuclear Security Administration's W87-1 program -- potentially the most expensive warhead modernization effort since the end of the Cold War -- is neglecting best management practices when considering future design options and plutonium pit availability, according to previously undisclosed details from a classified report the watchdog completed in February. (UPDATED)
The Air Force is refining its acquisition strategy for the Stand-in Attack Weapon -- an emerging guided missile intended for the F-35 fighter jet -- to place greater emphasis on digital engineering and open-systems architecture.
The Air Force has awarded General Atomics an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract that enables the service and its foreign military sale partners to purchase up to 36 MQ-9 Reapers annually over the next five years.
The HH-60W Combat Rescue Helicopter program has begun on-the-ground, live-fire tests with the Sikorsky-built aircraft’s three primary guns, the Air Force revealed earlier this week.
The Air National Guard's MQ-9 enterprise has been quietly fighting under the radar to show the remotely piloted aircraft has utility in future operations by transforming its hunter-killer counterinsurgency capabilities to better enable joint all-domain command and control under a little-known initiative called the "Ghost Reaper," multiple sources tell Inside Defense.
The Air Force is eyeing an investment of about $100 million in its vanguard programs -- which strive to accelerate transformational capabilities to the battlefield -- in fiscal year 2024 to meet the demands of the service's 2030 Science and Technology Strategy.
The next-generation platform General Atomics is pitching to replace the Air Force's MQ-9 Reapers will leverage open architecture, artificial intelligence, advanced propulsion and other sophisticated technologies to enable reduced life-cycle costs, cross-domain communication, persistent operations and more, according to a statement the company shared with Inside Defense today.
The Pentagon is planning more tests of the Agile Condor pod that enables an MQ-9 Reaper to autonomously surveil targets with artificial intelligence -- such as algorithms developed by Project Maven -- for extended periods, even if connection to the ground station is lost.
The Air Force Scientific Advisory Board will meet next week to learn the results of a fiscal year 2020 study on how the service plans to select and manage future vanguard programs, according to a notice published in the Federal Register.
The Air Force is collaborating with the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center to leverage the digital infrastructure enabled by its enterprise-wide cloud, software development and data support initiatives to achieve Project Maven's original goals and develop "AI as a service" for all the military departments.
The Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a $13.3 billion contract to develop the military's next intercontinental ballistic missile system, the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent.
The Air Force has tested its new communications network and industry-provided technology at the second Advanced Battle Management System on-ramp and is now eyeing software packages for the program's commandONE line of effort.
The Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a $135 million, 14-year contract to remanufacture the Air-Launch Cruise Missile’s inertial navigation element, the Pentagon announced Wednesday.