Praise the Lord and Pass the Parachutes: The Pentagon’s new Unmanned Aircraft Systems Roadmap says it will take longer to prepare UASes for use in airlift operations (planned for 2025-30) than for air combat operations (predicted for 2020-25). Why? According to the report (p. 73), troops will be nervous about flying in a crew-less airplane. And foreign countries won’t like robotic aircraft landing and taking off in densely populated areas.
The rate of building B-21 bombers would speed up if the fiscal 2026 defense budget passes. But it remains unclear how much capacity would be added, and whether the Air Force would simply build the bombers faster, or buy more.