Saturday, November 22, 2025
Troy Meink, President Trump’s nominee to be the next Air Force secretary, today committed to adding more aircraft to the service’s aging inventory, telling lawmakers the current fleet is the oldest and smallest in the Air Force’s history.
An ongoing Air Mobility Command effort to add autonomous flight capabilities from Reliable Robotics to its aging KC-135 Stratotanker fleet will continue in some form whether it receives money through the yearlong continuing resolution or not, according to the service and a company official.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine is changing the way NATO's Allied Air Command thinks about deployment tactics, deputy commander Air Marshal Johnny Stringer said today, putting a focus on more modern concepts in place of the status quo.
The Trump administration's decision to push forward with the F-47 Next Generation Air Dominance platform raises questions about how the major new aircraft program will be paid for, especially following Congress' recent passage of a yearlong stopgap spending bill that erodes the Pentagon's buying power.
The Trump administration today announced Boeing has been selected to produce the Air Force's multibillion-dollar Next Generation Air Dominance penetrating platform, beating out Lockheed Martin in the contest after months of uncertainty.
As Air Mobility Command gradually recapitalizes its fleet of 60-year-old KC-135 Stratotankers, it "may need to look at a service life extension" to keep the refuelers in the air beyond their stated 2050 retirement date and fill in capability gaps, AMC Commander Gen. John Lamontagne said recently.
The Air Force's major command chiefs are still hesitant about handing over their requirements-writing duties to the service's nascent Integrated Capabilities Command, a senior Air Force official told Inside Defense.
The Pentagon today countered speculation that the U.S. government can remotely disable other nations' F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets, stating in a notice to reporters, "There is no kill switch."
At the top of the Air Force's list of solutions to ensure deterrence and protect the homeland -- concepts Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has laid out as central to building lethality and military readiness -- is acknowledging an "unkept secret" about the toll of caring for the service's excess infrastructure, Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin said today.
If Congress reaches a deal on a yearlong continuing resolution to keep the government running through September, the Air Force’s foundational accounts could see a blow as high as $14 billion, a top service official told lawmakers yesterday.
DENVER -- The Air Force needs a Next Generation Air Dominance penetrating fighter jet to maintain survivability and lethality in a contested Indo-Pacific environment, top service leaders said last week.
The Air Force is still "fully committed to tanker recapitalization post the KC-46" Pegasus program, a top service official told lawmakers today.
Reps. Don Bacon (R-NE) and Jason Crow (D-CO) on Thursday introduced legislation that would maintain each of the Air Force's fighter squadrons as the service seeks to divest older jets and procure more modern ones.
DENVER -- As soon as today, the Joint Integrated Test and Training Center at Nellis Air Force Base, NV could receive a final assessment of its Joint Simulation Environment before the synthetic test system can be officially stood up in the next few weeks, a senior Air Force materiel leader said Wednesday.
The Air Force Research Laboratory wants more information from vendors regarding autonomy software, according to a recent industry day announcement, and is planning to host potential partners at its facility in Dayton, OH in May.
DENVER -- Global supply chains are not as accessible to the Air Force as they once were, following years of changing foreign policy, inflation and the pandemic, service logisticians told Inside Defense.
DENVER -- Most of the work related to the analysis of alternatives for the Air Force's Next Generation Air Refueling System has been submitted to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, a senior Air Force official said today, putting a pin in deliberations which have spanned years.
DENVER -- Lockheed Martin will take the next step this summer in its yearslong sprint to outfit the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter with new mission system hardware, a company executive told Inside Defense, when the aircraft is slated to get another Technology Refresh-3 configuration release and early Block 4 capabilities.
DENVER -- Uncrewed fighter jets designed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and Anduril Industries for the Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft program will take to the skies for the first time this summer, service Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin said today.
DENVER -- The Air Force last week halted deliveries of the KC-46A Pegasus after it became aware of cracks found in the "outboard fixed-trailing-edge support structure" of two brand-new production tankers not yet shipped to the service, according to an Air Force spokesperson.