The Air Force Research Laboratory has already experimented with airborne lasers on the virtual battlefield. Now the lab’s latest test has combined those lasers with next-generation kinetic weapons to see how they could work together. Seven pilots, weapon systems officers, and air battle managers took ...
Technology
The Space Force—the only military branch born in the information age—has declared itself a “digital first” service. But its leaders are still wrestling with the challenges of digital transformation and working to build a 21st century service culture, they recently told attendees at an industry ...
Successfully introducing new, unmanned aircraft in the Air Force, with varying degrees of autonomy, is at risk as long as there’s widespread disagreement about what an “autonomous” aircraft actually is, according to an upcoming paper from AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. The think-tank urges ...
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III has nominated former New York mayor and media magnate Michael R. Bloomberg to be the chair of the Defense Innovation Board, Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby announced. At the same time, he announced that Austin had approved ...
The Defense Innovation Unit and its partnering Defense Department organizations transitioned six projects to programs of record in 2021, awarding contracts to eight companies in categories that ranged from assessing cyber threats to launching rocket payloads.
A member of President Joe Biden’s transition team who was recently a fellow at a defense policy think tank swore in Feb. 7 as the new assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology, and logistics. Andrew Hunter will lead the Air Force’s research, ...
The National Defense Industrial Association has given the climate for the defense industrial base a failing grade based on data in the association's latest "Vital Signs" annual report. Supply chain issues, workforce availability, cyber espionage, reduced investment in basic research, and insufficient leadership in key ...
The U.S. won’t keep pace with China and Russia in electronic warfare if it keeps “drip feeding” organizations, according to a new paper published by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
A recent open letter by an Air Force employee demanding that the Pentagon upgrade its IT systems struck a chord with many on social media—and now, the Secretary of the Air Force has weighed in, saying the service has “got to be better” on the ...