AFA Almanac 2024

Elon Musk, a confidant of President-elect Trump, has a poor opinion of the F-35 fighter and thinks it should give way to new, uncrewed aircraft. As one of the heads of the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency, Musk's views could affect upcoming contracts and plans for the fighter, but Trump…

Joshua Niedzwiecki, Vice President and General Manager of Electronic Combat Solutions at BAE Systems, shares how BAE Systems uses mission-based systems (and how those systems will work within the U.S. Air Force’s new Integrated Capabilities Command) to provide an EW...

B-52s touch down frequently at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., but the one that landed Sept. 30 looked a little different. Sporting bright orange paint on the cockpit, wing tips, engine nacelles, and tail, the Stratofortress seemed dressed for an early start to hunting season in Louisiana; in fact, the special…

Lockheed Martin received two Air Force contracts on Sept. 27, together worth $3.56 billion, for production of the AGM-58B Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile and the AGM-158C Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile, the Pentagon announced. The contracts include missiles for the Air Force, Navy, and partner nations under the Foreign Military Sales program.…

The Air Force thinks Collaborative Combat Aircraft can be bought for as little as $1,200 per pound—about a third of the cost of crewed fighters—but mission equipment needs to be aligned to that lower price.

There are a lot of new demands on the government-industry propulsion enterprise—ranging from exquisite new fighter engines to cheap, off-the-shelf powerplants for drones—that will require sustained support, experts said.

As the Air Force prepares for great power competition and a potential high-end fight with the likes of China and Russia, its training needs to keep pace, and artificial intelligence and open systems can provide a better representation of the threats and the ways the U.S. will fight in the…

The Space Force is eyeing a new marketplace to take advantage of commercial satellites that can move in geosynchronous orbit, the head of Space Systems Command’s Commercial Space Office said last week. 

After two years of storm clouds, the future looks bright for Air Force Reserve Command recruiting, which exceeded its fiscal year 2024 goal of 7,200 Airmen by about 1.2 percent.