The Ukraine war has taught that speedy countermeasures, flexible funding and exploiting off-the-shelf commercial technology are crucial to equipping forces for modern conflict, policy veterans of the Pentagon and Congress said on a CNAS webinar.
Rapid Acquisition & Sustainment
Four companies will explore rapidly- and mass-produced drone concepts under the Enterprise Test Vehicle program being conducted by the Air Force’s Armament Directorate and the Defense Innovation Unit. The concepts, which are to fly this summer, are to make use of commercial, off-the-shelf, or easy-to-obtain ...
Mission capable rates across most Air Force fleets declined in fiscal 2023, continuing a broad downward trend, according to information provided by the service. Readiness fell predictably in high-demand, hard-used assets and some systems approaching retirement, but the availability of some vintage aircraft continues to ...
The Air Force should quickly and comprehensively adopt digital methods to regain the speed of fielding new gear necessary to match the "blistering" pace of China's modernization, a new Mitchell Institute paper recommends.
Questioned by lawmakers on the state of the Air Force's maintenance depots, Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James C. "Jim" Slife said April 30 that the service is investing in IT and data infrastructure to better sustain new software-intensive platforms—while acknowledging that there is still ...
Lockheed Martin projects more than a billion dollars of losses on a classified program, but company officials said April 23 they are confident it will turn profitable by 2028 and become a "franchise" system in the U.S. military.
Brig. Gen. Luke C.G. Cropsey, or whoever succeeds him as the Department of the Air Force’s top acquisition official for command, control, and communications/battle management, is poised to take command of the new Air Force Information Dominance Systems Center. The service will also establish a program ...
William LaPlante said there’s been “significant improvement” in the program over the last decade, and program leaders can now “focus on the future of the F-35, instead of the past.”
The Air Force may have just flown the last test of the AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon, its only hypersonic missile that may be ready for production. The Air Force zeroed the program in fiscal 2025, but won't say if the project is over.