Predictive analytics and refuel-and-repair capabilities for satellites are some of U.S. Space Command’s key technology needs, a top official said. The command is charged with monitoring activity and debris in space for the operation of military satellites as well as manned space missions. To do that—and to detect electromagnetic waveforms that could be signs of electronic warfare from adversaries—the command will need new types of satellites or new capabilities for satellites, Lt. Gen. John E. Shaw, deputy commander of U.S. Space Command, said at the DARPA Forward event.
Raytheon Missiles and Defense won a $972 million contract to supply the U.S. and other militaries with Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles, or AMRAAMs. Under the non-competitive, firm-fixed-price incentive modification to a previously awarded contract, Raytheon will produce AMRAAMs for both the Air Force and Navy as well as the militaries of 19 other countries including the U.K., Australia, Italy, Saudi Arabia, and Japan. Foreign military sales account for 42 percent of the contract’s value, the Pentagon said.
The Missile Defense Agency has awarded Boeing a contract worth up to $5 billion for system integration, testing, and readiness work under its Ground-based Midcourse Defense program, responsible for defending the U.S. homeland from intermediate- and long-range ballistic missile threats. The GMD SITR award gives Boeing work under MDA’s new structure for the future of the GMD program, which broke the GMD program into multiple contracts to encourage industry competition after years of Boeing being the prime contractor.
As the Department of Defense (DoD) pursues its digital modernization strategy, and innovative technologies continue to enable the USAF to maintain domain superiority, Google Cloud is emerging as an important strategic partner.
Reports of sexual assaults across the U.S. military jumped by 13 percent last year, driven by significant increases in the Army and the Navy as bases began to move out of pandemic restrictions and public venues reopened, The Associated Press has learned. Mirroring the increase in those reports is the disclosure that close to 36,000 service members said in a confidential survey that they had experienced unwanted sexual contact—a dramatic increase over the roughly 20,000 who said that in a similar 2018 survey, U.S. defense and military officials said.
Marijuana use may no longer disqualify prospective applicants from joining the Air Force or Space Force due to a possible policy change under consideration at the Air Force Recruiting Service. Recruiting boss Maj. Gen. Edward W. Thomas Jr. said his organization is exploring the option of granting waivers to recruits who test positive for THC, marijuana’s high-inducing chemical, at Military Entrance Processing Stations.
As a second session of a United Nations working group on reducing space threats approaches, U.S. government officials say they’re looking for ways to encourage more countries to back a ban on anti-satellite weapon tests. Vice President Kamala Harris announced April 18 that the United States would refrain from conducting direct-ascent anti-satellite (ASAT) tests, calling such debris-generating activities “reckless and irresponsible.” She called on other nations to also halt such tests.
Photos from a recent event at Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., provide our first look at an Air Force AC-130J Ghostrider gunship equipped with an upgraded 105mm howitzer. This follows an announcement from the Navy earlier this year that it had delivered at least one prototype of a gun that is intended to replace the existing, aging M102 howitzers that have been used on various AC-130 gunship variants for decades now.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is providing an important case study for how information warfare can play out in the modern era, according to a top Air Force general. “As we’re in competition leading up to this crisis, the ability of our enterprise to support our senior leaders and the [intelligence community] and the sharing with our Secretary of State, with the National Security Council, with the President, with the Secretary of Defense—and the ability of us to share information with our partners and allies to tell them exactly what was going to happen at the timing of tempo when it happened—was amazing,” said Lt. Gen. Kevin Kennedy, commander of 16th Air Force.
Fifty years ago in August 1972, fighter pilot Capt. R. Steve Ritchie achieved his fifth aerial victory and ace status. Given the limitations of a 21st century dominated by guerrilla warfare and remote-controlled electronic surveillance aircraft, he may well be the last. Richard Steven Ritchie, born in Reidsville, N.C., on June 25, 1942, graduated from the Air Force Academy and got his wings at Laredo Air Force Base, Texas. In his first Vietnam combat tour in 1968, Ritchie flew 95 forward air controller missions directing artillery or airstrikes from an F-4 Phantom II.