The Air Force will officially take ownership of its first production-representative T-7A trainer jet “in the coming weeks” and quickly move into flight testing from contractor Boeing’s St. Louis facility, a service official said last week. After that, the first two Red Hawks will transfer out ...
Rapid Acquisition & Sustainment
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 ...
The Air Force’s approach to developing Collaborative Combat Aircraft—the uncrewed, autonomous drones to fly alongside manned aircraft—will “break the mold” of traditional acquisition and sustainment, Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. said July 31. For years, Brown told attendees at the Air Force Life ...
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.
U.S. Space Command should seek to work with and buy from commercial industry as much as possible, the Space Force general nominated to lead the combatant command said July 26. Lt. Gen. Stephen N. Whiting’s comments at his Senate confirmation hearing follow on recently announced plans ...
The heads of the U.S., British, and Australian air forces all signed a “joint vision statement” declaring their intent to work together in developing the E-7 Wedgetail for airborne early warning and control, the U.S. Air Force announced July 17. USAF did not immediately provide Air ...
Space is taking on more responsibilities for the U.S. military. Next on the agenda: cargo. A June 30 solicitation from the Defense Innovation Unit is seeking “novel commercial solutions that enable responsive and precise point-to-point delivery of cargo to, from, and through space.” If successful, ...
Increasing F-35 orders have raised questions about the capacity of the industrial base to keep up with demand, which could outstrip the planned peak output of the Lockheed Martin-made stealth fighter. Israel announced a fresh order for F-35s on July 2, saying it will buy ...
Without a large corrective investment, the Air Force’s aged fighter force will “collapse” soon due to its small size, lack of training in high-end warfare, low availability, and chronic shortage of pilots and maintainers, according to a new report from the Air & Space Forces ...