Barely more than six in 10 aircraft in the Air Force’s fleet were able to carry out their missions on an average day in fiscal 2024, according to a Defense News analysis. The fleet-wide mission capable rate of 62 percent is the lowest in recent memory. ... The Air Force provided statistics on how many of each kind of aircraft it had in 2024, as well as the percentage of time each aircraft was ready to carry out its mission. Those stats were first reported by Air and Space Forces Magazine.
A fire tore through an airplane-parts factory last month in suburban Philadelphia, decimating the century-old plant. Boeing has been racing ever since to size up whether it will delay the jet maker’s turnaround plans.
Lockheed Martin is aiming to release new software to U.S. F-35 jets this summer, a “step” towards the full, combat-ready version of the TR-3 upgrade, according to a company executive. ... The new suite, called Technology Refresh-3 is a software and hardware upgrade needed for Block 4 improvements. It was initially slated for completion in April 2023, but software-development problems have delayed the effort multiple times, and Lockheed execs and Pentagon officials haven't set a firm delivery date for the full package.
General Atomics says it’ll be ready to mass-produce its collaborative combat aircraft prototype after first flight this summer, its president said—soon after Air Force leaders debuted a new designation for such robot wingmen.
The Pentagon has initiated a review of its contracting enterprise in pursuit of DOGE cost-cutting efforts, according to a new memo. The move follows an executive order issued last week by President Donald Trump, which aims for “a transformation in Federal spending on contracts, grants, and loans to ensure Government spending is transparent and Government employees are accountable to the American public,” according to the EO.
A failure by lawmakers to pass a budget for fiscal year 2025 risks delaying the Air Force’s effort to field a new fleet of jumbo jets that can survive nuclear war, according to a company executive involved with the project.
In a March 2024 flight test, Stratolaunch’s Roc aircraft took off from California’s Mojave Spaceport and, after reaching its designated position off the California coast, released its payload, the Talon-A test vehicle, designed to test hypersonic flight profiles. Stratolaunch celebrated a successful test but remained tight-lipped about who would use the hypersonic test vehicle. Those customers have since emerged: the United States Air Force and the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency.
While it has long been a world-ending threat in science fiction, U.S. Air Force and Space Force officials see artificial intelligence (AI) playing important, if not critical roles in the command and control enterprise at the heart of America’s nuclear deterrent capabilities.
Starship—the huge spacecraft that Elon Musk says will one day take people to Mars—failed during its latest test flight on March 6 when its upper stage exploded in space, raining debris and disrupting air traffic at airports from Florida to Pennsylvania.
