The Air Force has tapped Leidos, the defense IT giant, to help oversee the digital infrastructure for its Advanced Battle Management System—part of the department’s contribution to the Pentagon’s larger joint all-domain command and control efforts.
Operational Imperatives
The National Reconnaissance Office is participating in Pentagon exercises and launching dozens of satellites as it prepares to work with the Space Force on tracking targets from orbit, its director said last week.
Air Force Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost—a trailblazer and one of the first 10 women to reach a four-star rank across the U.S. military—retired and passed control of U.S. Transportation Command to Air Force Gen. Randall Reed on Oct. 4, finishing an eventful tenure at ...
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.
Air Combat Command activated three new air task forces this week, bringing the Air Force closer to starting all six of the units that will form the next stage of its deployment model.
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.