America’s launch enterprise has been outperforming expectations for more than a decade, steadily increasing the missions it can support, the pace of resetting launch pads, and the agility to launch on demand.
Emerging Technology
The Pentagon on Aug. 25 announced a pair of Air Force contracts to Raytheon and Boeing, totaling more than $766 million, for advance work on adding new radars to the B-52H Stratofortress.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems predicts the new drone it plans to pitch for the military’s “Massed Modular Aircraft” program will exceed many of the military’s requirements for a successor to the MQ-9 Reaper.
Shield AI, a specialist vying to provide the autonomy software for the Air Force’s autonomous Collaborative Combat Aircraft, has won government backing for its X-BAT drone—but not from USAF.
The Air Force’s Experimental Operations Unit hosted a change of command ceremony recently, another sign of how the CCA concept is maturing and becoming entrenched in the Air Force’s structure, to the point where exercises have generated multiple sorties in a single day to simulate ...
The Air Force is looking for a new family of drones to serve as aerial targets for test missions, ranging from cheap, expendable quadcopters to large, reusable aircraft that can mimic fifth-generation enemy fighters.
A top Pentagon tech official called on industry this week to help the military develop “lighter, more efficient” directed energy weapons designed to go on aircraft and conduct special operations missions or down drones—areas where the Air Force’s directed energy efforts have been quiet as ...
A new report on modernizing Air Force training and education suggests borrowing a method from the civilian technology industry to help Airmen and Guardians build skills in key new areas like artificial intelligence: stackable certificates.
The Pentagon’s top research lab is interested in developing a hypersonic cruise missile prototype that provides “a revolutionary leap in operational performance,” as the first wave of U.S. hypersonic weapons enters production and service.