Friday, April 18, 2025
Key Issues Overhauling the FAR Troops in South Korea Overland AI
Lockheed Martin today unveiled it is developing a longer-range cruise missile dubbed AGM-158 XR that "stretches the existing [Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile], [Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile] family," Jon Hill, the company's air dominance and strike weapons vice president and general manager, told a small group of reporters today.
The Air Force's new Integrated Capabilities Command -- which will be used to help bind the service's goals across the entire enterprise by developing capabilities that are interoperable across each command -- has been "provisionally" stood up, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin said today.
The Air Force today announced it is giving software company Reliable Robotics an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract to develop autonomy for Air Force air taxis and refuelers, according to a company news release.
Boeing machinists in the Seattle region on Friday rejected a contract proposal from the company and voted to strike, temporarily pausing production of the KC-46 Pegasus tanker and P-8 Poseidon aircraft and furthering the fiscal restraints Boeing's defense unit has felt in recent years.
As the Air Force rewrites requirements for the Next Generation Air Dominance platform, Northrop Grumman is "monitoring" the program and may jump back into the competition, the company's chief executive said today.
The Air Force yesterday awarded missile-maker Raytheon $1.19 billion in an "incentive modification" to produce Lot 38 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles, making it the largest AMRAAM award to date, the company said.
Anduril Industries today unveiled its new "Barracuda" strain of software-defined, air-breathing cruise missiles that are described as similar in performance to one-way drones but would cost significantly less than comparable systems and be easy to build at scale, according to company officials.
The Air Force will narrowly reduce cost growth for its MH-139 Grey Wolf helicopter program from "critical" to "significant" status as the Pentagon allows the service to purchase additional aircraft in the fiscal year 2026 budget "to support mission requirements," according to a recent Selected Acquisition Report.
As the Air Force prepares to field Collaborative Combat Aircraft by the end of the decade, it is turning to Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles and other munitions otherwise fitted onto manned platforms to equip the drones for battle, Jon Norman, head of air power requirements and capabilities at Raytheon, said today.
After finally getting the go-ahead in the fiscal year 2024 budget to kick-off several key Air Force projects as part of its Seven Operational Imperatives, a proposed six-month temporary spending bill for FY-25 is again threatening to delay the service's swift modernization and readiness plans, according to a new letter Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has sent to Capitol Hill leadership.
As autonomy and other innovative technology emerge rapidly out of research and development and into the field, the Air Force is changing the way it thinks about acquisition to center systems over platforms, forcing industry to also pivot how it presents products.
The Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft has been championed by Pentagon personnel and some lawmakers for its speed-to ramp acquisition model to fill capability gaps and ability to bring an affordable mass to the warfighter, but not every aspect of the program will be purchased the same way, the service's acquisition chief Andrew Hunter said today.
The Air Force has taken on millions in losses because personnel lack training to adequately identify defective parts or correctly seek restitution from contractors, according to a recent report from the Pentagon’s inspector general.
The Defense Department is withholding about $5 million for each F-35 Joint Strike Fighter delivered with a truncated version of the Technology Refresh-3 software upgrade, a spokesperson with the F-35 Joint Program Office told Inside Defense.
The Air Force last week signed a record of decision to replace all of the T-38C Talons at Columbus Air Force Base, MS with up to 77 T-7A Red Hawk jets, keeping the flight training program there, according to a Federal Register notice issued this week.
Joby Aviation and Reliable Robotics performed several autonomous logistics missions during the Air Force's Agile Flag 24-3 exercise earlier this month, demonstrating the kind of flexibility and extended range the service has said is needed to be successful in a fight in the Indo-Pacific, according to an Air Force news release.
The prospect of facing another series of continuing resolutions that would hold back implementation of the fiscal year 2025 defense budget is already piquing concern from the Air Force's top officer.
The Air Force's new Integrated Capabilities Command may take the longest and be the most difficult to execute out of each of the service's recently announced organizational changes, a top service official said today.
The Air Force's plan to test its new organizational structure in a large-scale, multicombatant command exercise in the Indo-Pacific next summer now has a name: REFORPAC.
Archer Aviation has delivered its first Midnight mobility platform to the Air Force for evaluation as part of the company's up to $142 million contract with AFWERX agility prime, according to a notice issued today.