The Air Force expects to start test-flying the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile starting this fall, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. Tests will iterate the design and continue until 2027, at which point HACM will transition to a major defense program ...
Operational Imperative 6: Global Strike
Initial operational capability for the B-52J—the new designation for the bomber after extensive re-engining and upgrade programs—won’t be achieved until 2033. The three-year delay is due to issues both with its new engines and new radar, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report.
Testing of the B-21 bomber and AGM-181 nuclear cruise missile is going well, and some “key” developments with the Raider are expected later this year, Air Force acquisition executive Andrew P. Hunter told a Senate committee on May 8.
While former generals, airpower experts, and even the head of U.S. Strategic Command have all endorsed the idea of the service buying more than 100 B-21 bombers, the Air Force deputy chief of staff for plans and programs suggested a formal decision on that front ...
More than 100 B-21s will be needed if the nation is to avoid creating a high demand/low capacity capability, panelists said on a Hudson Institute webinar. The B-21's flexibility, stealth, range and payload will be in high demand for a wide range of missions, both ...
A new report from a bipartisan commission urges the U.S. to redraw its strategy to deal with not just one, but two nuclear peers, and urges Congress to support an urgently-needed modernization of the nuclear weapons enterprise. The report also said the U.S. can no ...
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. unveiled new imagery of the secretive B-21 Raider during his keynote address at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber conference on Sept. 12, the first glimpse of the stealthy bomber in months.
U.S. Strategic Command is facing “low margin transition” with its triad of air, land, and underwater nuclear forces being modernized simultaneously, officials say. ”I think we as a nation understand that it's not a ‘Should we?’ It’s a ‘We must,’” STRATCOM commander Gen. Anthony J. ...
Northrop Grumman and the Air Force successfully demonstrated a new mission update system for the B-2 bomber in a two-day event at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., last month. The system receives new mission parameters and feeds them directly into the B-2’s computers without the ...