Saturday, November 22, 2025
Unmanned fighter jets could be fielded "way" before the end of the decade, or the Air Force's planned timeline for operating Collaborative Combat Aircraft, Brandon Tseng, co-founder and president of ShieldAI, told Inside Defense.
The Air Force is setting its sights on modernized counter small unmanned aircraft systems fitted with modular machine learning algorithms, the latest command and control technology and more capable sensors and effectors, according to a recent request for information.
The Senate Appropriations Committee wants to bulk up the Air Force's fleet by giving the service an additional $3.4 billion to make about 500 more aircraft available as lawmakers and the Pentagon weigh priorities to deter Russia and China, according to a report accompanying Senate appropriators' version of next year's defense spending bill.
Boeing on Friday delivered the first production MH-139 Grey Wolf helicopter to the Air Force, months after the program's per-unit costs grew enough to breach Nunn-McCurdy law, according to a company news release issued today.
A CV-22 Osprey crash last year off the coast of Japan is linked to a severe failure of one of the aircraft's gearboxes as the crew was preparing for an emergency landing, killing the eight airmen on board, according to an Air Force investigation released Aug. 1.
The Senate Appropriations Committee today approved a defense spending bill that would inject the Air Force's Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion efforts with $280 million above the service's fiscal year 2025 request, according to legislative documents.
DAYTON, OH -- The embattled KC-46A Pegasus tanker is now dealing with seven issues that could result in significant damage to the air vehicle or death of an operator, Kevin Stamey, the Air Force's program executive officer for mobility and training aircraft, told reporters Tuesday.
DAYTON, OH -- The Air Force's next-generation refueling fleet may come down the line sooner than previously expected, and with greater capability, after a potential injection from the service's quick-start authority in fiscal year 2025, service Secretary Frank Kendall said today.
Like families often do, the Next Generation Air Dominance family of systems has recently found itself in turmoil, with the Air Force now reconsidering its original vision for the sixth-generation fighter to ensure it is well-suited against evolving threats in the Indo-Pacific.
DAYTON, OH -- A mix of five traditional and non-traditional businesses have received contracts to develop the mission autonomy for the first increment of Collaborative Combat Aircraft, Air Force Brig. Gen. Jason Voorheis, program executive officer for fighters and advanced aircraft, said Monday.
Greece today signed a formal deal to purchase 20 F-35A Joint Strike Fighters, making it the 19th country to fly the fifth-generation aircraft, according to an announcement from plane-maker Lockheed Martin.
Like families often do, the Next Generation Air Dominance family of systems has recently found itself in turmoil, with the Air Force now reconsidering its original vision for the sixth-generation fighter to ensure it is well-suited against evolving threats in the Indo-Pacific.
As the Pentagon seeks to arm the tri-variant F-35 Joint Strike Fighter with StormBreaker precision-strike glide bombs, RTX subsidiary Raytheon today revealed the weapon performed at “a 100% success rate on 14 of 14 planned jettisons from the F-35C,” according to a company news release.
Pratt & Whitney sent the first F100 engine to Poland this year to support the country's fleet of F-16 Fighting Falcons, according to a company news release issued today.
Lockheed Martin today delivered the first two F-35 Joint Strike Fighters fit with a truncated version of the Technology Refresh-3 upgrade, officially lifting the Pentagon's year-long pause on accepting new jets despite the software still facing outstanding issues, according to a statement issued by the F-35 Joint Program Office.
In 1984, when the Army formally agreed to take on the responsibility of providing ground-based air defenses for air bases, Air Force officials made clear their concerns about the capabilities of near-peer adversaries and the need to fill gaps in then-current measures to protect installations.
The Pratt & Whitney-made F135 engine has completed a preliminary design review for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter's Engine Core Upgrade, putting the program on track to field by 2029, according to an announcement the company posted Monday.
Deliveries of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter enabled with a truncated version of the Technology Refresh-3 software upgrade will soon resume, putting an end to a temporary pause in aircraft deliveries until Lockheed Martin fixed a series of developmental issues, according to a statement issued today by the F-35 Joint Program Office.
Air Force Air Combat Command boss Gen. Ken Wilsbach today said the service has no official plan to replace its fleet of F-22 Raptors, despite leaders for years saying a replacement would be the Next Generation Air Dominance system.
ST. LOUIS -- Even as the Air Force has signaled some support to eventually field unmanned tanker systems, plane-maker Boeing will be looking at "principally crewed concepts" until the service explicitly says it wants autonomous refueling platforms, Sean Liedman, Boeing's director of global reach, mobility, surveillance and bombers, recently told reporters here. (UPDATED)