The Air Force might have to field more than 65 remotely piloted aircraft orbits, Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz hinted on Tuesday at AFA’s Air & Space Conference. In a press conference, Schwartz said, “We’re at 59 orbits today. We’re going to 65, and perhaps higher, as mandated.” Schwartz said there’s “no question” about the Air Force’s commitment to RPA funding, but he warned that intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance doesn’t have a blank check. “There will not be the resources for multiple good ideas,” he said. They will have to be distilled down to “the things we really want to pursue, those things with the highest payoff and, probably, the least development cost.”
RTX’s Raytheon unit was able to “significantly” extend the range of the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile using mostly software changes in experimental tests last year, expanding the reach and lethality of the standard U.S. dogfighting weapon, company officials said Sept. 15.
