Wednesday, May 8, 2024
The Air Force's plan to retrofit its RQ-4 Global Hawk intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting drones for hypersonic missile testing is on track for initial fielding in 2025, Doug Shaffer, vice president for airborne ISR&T programs at Northrop Grumman, told Inside Defense. (UPDATED)
The Air Force is hinging a majority of its future readiness and capability development around a recently announced organizational shakeup to better prepare for conflict in the Indo-Pacific. But a large swath of the modernization efforts tied to the new schema could be compromised if Congress puts forward a yearlong continuing resolution, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin said today during a Brookings Institution event.
DENVER -- The Air Force is changing the way it presents units to the Defense Department's 11 combatant commands as part of a massive structural overhaul announced earlier this month at the Air and Space Forces Association's Warfare Symposium.
After receiving approval to perform critical cargo missions for the Air Force, autonomous aircraft operator Xwing said their "phones started ringing" from other "partners in the military" interested in working with the company, including Pacific Air Forces.
DENVER -- The Air Force Research Laboratory is poised to play a major role in the Air Force's massive reorganization plan to outpace China, but a full-year continuing resolution for fiscal year 2024 may derail such efforts, according to service leaders at the Air and Space Forces Association's Warfare Symposium.
DENVER -- Key to the Air Force's massive reoptimization plan to ensure readiness and prepare for future conflict is conducting large-scale and complicated exercises, senior Air Force officials said throughout the Air and Space Force Association’s Air Warfare Symposium here.
The State Department today approved a $69.3 million foreign military sale of AIM-120C-8 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles and related equipment, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
DENVER -- The Air Force is eager to get its fleet of CV-22 Ospreys back into the air, but Air Force Special Operations Command officials said the tiltrotor will remain grounded until they are confident in its safety.
DENVER -- Any aircraft procured following the last deliveries of the KC-46A tanker “needs to absolutely have some of the characteristics of what we need in NGAS,” or the Air Force’s highly secretive Next Generation Air-Refueling System, Air Mobility Command’s top commander told Inside Defense in an exclusive interview.
DENVER -- The Air Force is on track to down select for the first increment of Collaborative Combat Aircraft in the coming months, but budgetary constraints may only allow for two vendors instead of a preferred three, service Secretary Frank Kendall said today.
DENVER -- The Air Force's top commander in Europe today said he wants to add new capabilities to the service's munitions stockpile, including improved radar to locate and take down small drones.
DENVER -- Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall's massive restructuring of the service to compete against potential adversaries, such as China, will include a new command for generating capability requirements, a new process for deploying combat wings and elevated offices for electronic warfare and nuclear systems.
The Air Force has awarded autonomy startup Xwing military approval to fly cargo missions across California after successful completion of the AGILE FLAG 24-1 Joint Force exercise, the company said in a Friday news release.
Pratt & Whitney has completed a crucial preliminary design review of its digital offering for the Air Force's secretive Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion prototype, according to an advance news release from the company.
An ongoing engine modernization program for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will have to halt at the end of June if Congress isn't able to rectify a monthslong partisan divide over the fiscal year 2024 budget, Inside Defense has learned.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program office in mid-January completed a technical baseline review for its long-overdue hardware and software upgrade, an F-35 Joint Program Office spokesman told Inside Defense.
The Air Force needs collaborative combat aircraft to fill capability gaps as its legacy fighter fleet shrinks and the service prepares for a potential fight with China, according to a report published yesterday by the Mitchell Institute.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is significantly behind schedule, with just 51% of the aircraft available last year for combat, testing or training as opposed to the fleet's stated goal of 65%, according to a Pentagon report published today.
A senior Boeing executive today said the company's defense business is "poised to improve" after recording huge losses, yet fell short of announcing a blueprint for 2024 during the company's year-end earnings call.
The Air Force will meet with defense contractors next month to consider the upcoming 2024 broad agency announcement for the Networking the Fight program, which is meant to encourage and secure information sharing across several domains, according to a notice published Tuesday.