Ukraine’s air space has been contested for more than five months, replete with advanced Russian fighter jets and near-universal Russian surface-to-air missile coverage that make penetration by aging Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29s and Su-25s both risky and dangerous. For the duration of that time, Ukrainian ...
Just five U.S. aircraft remain to be certified with the KC-46 tanker for operational missions designated by U.S. Transportation Command, Air Mobility Command said. The new tanker is certified for some 97 percent of mission taskings now, but it's unclear when the next capability release ...
The Air Force is asking Congress to retire 150 airplanes in its fiscal 2023 budget, including 33 of its advanced F-22 fighters, but it would also hand off 100 MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft to another government agency and buy more than 82 other new ...
Lockheed Martin thinks its 17-plus years of demonstrations with unmanned aircraft with various degrees of autonomy will give it a leg up as the Air Force seeks to build new classes of tactical and strategic uncrewed aircraft, company aeronautics vice president Greg Ulmer said in ...
Russia's invasion of Ukraine and China's growing strategic arsenal have "pretty well put to bed" the debate over whether the U.S. should preserve all three legs of the nuclear triad, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said. Although he would not discuss particulars about the unreleased ...
New unmanned fighter and bomber projects won't unravel the Air Force's "4+1" combat aircraft roadmap, Secretary Frank Kendall said at the AFA Warfare Symposium. He provided broad outlines of the unmanned bomber and a cost target but said the project will be classified.
The Air Force trimmed 120 airplanes from its fleet in fiscal 2021, gaining the most aircraft among its F-35 fighter squadrons and giving up the most from its B-1 bomber units, according to data provided by the Air Force. With puts and takes, the Air ...
After gaining ground in fiscal 2020, the Air Force's fighter fleet saw a drop in readiness in fiscal 2021. Most fighters saw declines of two or three percentage points, but the F-35A's mission capable rate fell about eight percentage points after a big uptick the ...
The Next-Generation Air Dominance Fighter is Air Combat Command’s top priority, because without it, the Air Force can’t provide the control of the air the whole military depends on to operate, Air Combat Command chief Gen. Mark D. Kelly said. He also named a replacement ...
If Secretary Frank Kendall and other Air Force leaders get their way, the service will be retiring older aircraft in the near future as it looks to modernize. Specifically, legacy systems such as the A-10, KC-135, F-16, and C-130H are all primed for the chopping ...
A package deal similar to the Base Realignment and Closure process offers hope of getting Congress to let the Air Force retire old airplanes, Department of the Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said. The move could give members of Congress some political cover for allowing ...
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. highlighted the “catastrophic” implications if the Air Force does not change fast enough to keep up with China but added that recent public information about China’s buildup of intercontinental ballistic missile silos will help generate ...