Lockheed Martin will buy Aerojet Rocketdyne, maker of rocket motors and hypersonic engines, among other products, in a $5 billion transaction, Lockheed announced Dec. 21. The biggest issue in the potential deal is how comfortable the industry, Congress, and the Pentagon will be with all ...
Technology
The Air Force’s science advisers say the service needs to make its approach to cutting-edge “Vanguard” programs more concrete and repeatable—and to ditch them when things don’t work out. USAF leaders asked the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board to grade how the Vanguard concept is ...
The Pentagon has so many hypersonics projects underway there aren't enough people to conduct them and not enough facilities to test them, Air Force chief scientist Richard J. Joseph said during a Dec. 17 Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event. His comments came on the ...
Nearly two years after he was named as the Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System czar, Preston Dunlap is offering more details on how the lofty concept could become a reality that’s here to stay. He began the job of chief architect with a wide-ranging ...
A XQ-58 Valkyrie drone payload translated the incompatible signals of stealthy F-22 and F-35 fighters in a Dec. 9 test, enabling the aircraft to talk together and pass combat information between them. Air Force Chief Architect Preston Dunlap said the test shouldn't be viewed as ...
One of the Air Force’s oldest planes flew a high-tech first Dec. 15, becoming the first military aircraft to fly with artificial intelligence as its copilot. A U-2 from Beale Air Force Base, Calif., flew with an AI algorithm, named ARTUµ in a reference to ...
Dynetics and its partners are planning next steps for the Gremlins drone swarming program after the aircraft failed to dock with a C-130 in recent flight tests. A third round of demonstrations began Oct. 28 at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. The three X-61As individually tried ...
The Air Force will flight test the U.S. military’s first hypersonic missile this month, Air Force acquisition boss Will Roper said Dec. 14 at the inaugural Doolittle Leadership Center Forum. Speaking on the theme of “From Acquisition to Lethality,” Roper also described progress on the ...
As Air Force Materiel Command makes changes to speed up how it buys, tests, and sustains weapon systems, the command is also overhauling its personnel practices to ensure its Airmen face fewer career hurdles and can succeed, the command’s boss said. AFMC is overhauling its ...
