Friday, April 18, 2025
Key Issues Overhauling the FAR Troops in South Korea Overland AI
Since January, a contingent of Air Force Sustainment Center officials have traveled to Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines to forge early partnerships for the service's new Global Enterprise Network for Universal Sustainment, Inside Defense has learned.
A requested $1.5 billion in spare parts funding could make all the difference in reinvigorating the Air Force's ailing depots and make space for technical innovation, a top sustainment official said, but without it, several key operational initiatives the service has put in place to rival China will not have enough juice to reach the finish line.
The Air Force Research Laboratory is beginning to chart a path toward unpiloted aerial refuelers and transport aircraft, Lt. Col. Jonathan Gilbert, AFWERX Prime division chief, said last week, creating potential future options the service can use to quickly automate its fleet.
The Air Force Research Laboratory is interested in developing autonomous capabilities for analyzing operations and directing courses of action to uncrewed aircraft, according to a request for information issued today.
The Air Force last month began soliciting industry for information on mission system options beyond delivering gas for its Next Generation Air-Refueling System, lighting a fire under an ongoing effort to accelerate the program to counter growing threats in the Indo-Pacific.
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, IL -- U.S. Transportation Command will play a major role in deterring conflict in a potential battle with China, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Friday, from providing agile maneuver and quick delivery of assets or aid to directing logistics chains.
The Pentagon last week awarded Lockheed Martin a $3.2 billion multiyear procurement contract to boost production of its Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles and Long-Range Anti-Ship Missiles through July 2032 in a bid to replenish the nation's dwindling munitions stockpile.
As the Air Force envisions a future in which a network of small bases in austere locations allows airmen to swiftly plug in and out of operations, service officials are calling on the Army to bulk up its portion of air base defense.
The Air Force has awarded Boeing up to $6.9 billion to produce and deliver its Small Diameter Bomb Increment I precision munitions for the next decade, according to a contract notice posted today.
As the Air Force envisions a future in which a network of small bases in austere locations allows airmen to swiftly plug in and out of operations, service officials are calling on the Army to bulk up its portion of air base defense.
The Air Force Research Laboratory last week debuted two mock-ups of the first increment of Collaborative Combat Aircraft, built by Anduril Industries and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, providing a rare glimpse into how the service is narrowing its expectations for the autonomous platforms that will eventually accompany advanced fighters in battle.
The Air Force relied on about 130 China-based suppliers for critical technologies in fiscal year 2023, a 68.8% increase from the year prior, according to a recent report by Govini that has led key GOP lawmakers to call for change, citing national security concerns.
The Air Force is surveying industry about its ability to create an "advanced booster" that can bring greater payload capacity to its weapon systems across different ranges and at hypersonic speeds, according to a sources-sought notice the service issued Friday.
A last-minute addition to the Air Force MH-139 Grey Wolf's contractual requirements will be available when the service begins flight testing and won't delay initial operational test and evaluation, Azeem Khan, Boeing's MH-139 program manager and executive director, said last week.
Ted Colbert, the chief executive of Boeing's Defense, Space and Security unit, left the company today as the business struggles to bring its margins back to profitability.
Some Air Force CV-22 Ospreys will return to conducting missions for the combatant commands in "weeks," Lt. Gen. Michael Conley, commander of the service's Special Operations Command, said yesterday.
Collins Aerospace, a subsidiary of defense prime RTX, is excited to plug into government reference architectures, especially for capabilities inside the cockpit, but would still seek to retain certain proprietary rights, a top company executive told Inside Defense today.
As one-way unmanned aerial vehicles proliferate across contested regions, and with Russian factories now rapidly pumping out their own cruise missiles, the Air Force's top officer in Europe and Africa is calling for NATO allies to purchase a mass of cheap low-altitude sensors.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Joint Program Office is targeting next spring as the "hopeful" timeline for presenting the Pentagon's acquisition chief with an "executable" plan for what the platform will look like under the new, reimagined Block 4 upgrade, Program Executive Officer Lt. Gen. Michael Schmidt said today.
The Next Generation Air Dominance platform may be the last “traditionally crewed” aircraft in the Air Force's fleet -- and it might cost about as much or even less than a F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said yesterday.