Despite intense interest—and extra funding—from lawmakers, the U.S. Air Force will almost certainly not be able to get its first E-7 Wedgetail before 2027, acquisition officials said July 31. But the service can still take actions now to fill out the planned fleet of 26 airframes ...
Operational Imperatives
A collection of quotes on airpower, spacepower, and national security issues.
It’s impossible to overstate how central a role space plays in this whole conversation, whether you’re talking about the sensors, whether you’re talking about comms, space is going to play an extended role.
In another step toward first flight, the initial B-21 Raider has had its first “power-on” test, Northrop Grumman CEO Kathy Warden announced. The company still expects first flight—and a contract for low-rate initial production—by the end of 2023, she said in the company's second quarter ...
As governments become more reliant on information provided by commercial space assets, the line between military and civilian targets will become increasingly blurred in future conflicts, three former Air Force space operators-turned commercial space executives said a panel discussion hosted by the Hudson Institute July ...
We’re coming off a couple of decades of conflict in which all of our comms were essentially secured, we were not competing with a peer, and I think most of us in the room believe the next conflict will be quite different from that.
The Air Force’s primary platform for air attack against the most heavily defended targets will be the sixth-generation B-21 Raider, featuring a degree of stealth “orders of magnitude” stealthier than the B-2A Spirit it will replace.
The general impression over the past few decades that U.S. air bases were somehow sanctuaries was a historical anomaly. The threat has grown qualitatively and quantitatively.
Controlling the air domain is an imperative if the nation and U.S. allies are to be successful in future operations.