Air Force officials have settled on the three programs they want to adopt as the service’s first “vanguards”: the Skyborg wingman drone, a weapon swarming project, and an experimental satellite effort, Air Force Materiel Command boss Gen. Arnold Bunch said Nov. 21. “We believe they’re ...
Technology
Iran has been successful deterring the US and its regional adversaries and extending its influence in the Middle East with a three-pronged approach to defense, centered on ballistic missiles, a multilayered maritime defense and sponsorship of regional proxies, according to a new report from the ...
Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist told lawmakers Nov. 20 the Air Force needs to improve its system for tracking intercontinental ballistic missile motors, after the service’s fiscal 2019 audit noted 79 motors were listed as being in the wrong place. The Defense Department revealed the ...
A recent set of experiments with laser and microwave weapons in Oklahoma is shaping how the Air Force moves forward with its plan to protect bases from drones using directed energy. Five systems participated in the Air Force portion of the Maneuver and Fires Integrated ...
The F-35 is making progress but still faces major hurdles with its logistics system, intellectual property, supply chain, and more, officials overseeing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program told lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Nov. 13. Program leadership laid out a path to turn one ...
The years-old idea of an “arsenal plane,” a flying munitions truck that could accompany fighter jets and unmanned aircraft into battle, is now adapting to include the Air Force’s new technology pursuits. As the Air Force evolves its thinking on the prospect of an arsenal ...
New suppliers have been found for all but a dozen of the 850 parts Turkey is now making for the F-35, and most of the work is going to Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney, company and program officials told a House Armed Services panel ...
Lockheed Martin for the first time demonstrated a high-energy laser weapon’s ability to take out multiple small drones for the Air Force at the Army-hosted Maneuver and Fires Integrated Experiment last month. The Advanced Test High Energy Asset, or ATHENA system, shot down multiple fixed-wing ...
The Air Force next month will roll out two initial batches of technology intended to help the F-22 and F-35 “talk,” and to provide a fuller picture of US combat assets in a particular area. Starting in December, the service plans to demonstrate a new ...
