The blue ribbon panel that is set to determine the fate of the Air Force’s future manned fighter will provide its recommendations by the end of the year, the service’s top officer said Oct. 25.
Operational Imperative 4: Tactical Air Dominance
The Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit is looking for cheap commercial drones to perform a variety of battlefield missions for multiple services, according to a recent solicitation. The DIU wants small business and "nontraditional" contractor involvement in the project, which has a short response time.
Pratt & Whitney received a $1.31 billion contract Sept. 30 to continue development of the F135 Engine Core Upgrade for the F-35 fighter. The program passed Preliminary Design Review in July, and, barring any problems, will go into Critical Design Review within a year.
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.
It'll take up to 18 months for Lockheed Martin to deliver the 100 or so F-35s that went directly from production line to storage, awaiting the completion of Tech Refresh 3 testing. Customers haven't complained about the order in which the backlog is being delivered.
The Air Force is hoping to slash the cost of the Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter from hundreds of millions per copy to less than $80 million, secretary Frank Kendall said. It might be done by disaggregating the fighter’s functions and possibly making it uncrewed.
Pratt & Whitney is working with the Air Force to keep the F-22 credible beyond its previously-planned 2030 sunset by tracking parts usage to schedule maintenance only when actually needed. It's also pursuing additive parts printing as a cost-saver.
The Air Force is reconsidering how it gains air superiority—and whether it needs a manned sixth-generation fighter to achieve it, acquisition boss Andrew P. Hunter said.