Transformative advances in computing, more and more emphasis on information warfare, and increasingly few sanctuaries from the reach of adversaries—those are just some of the factors that will likely define the world and the Air Force in 2040, according to a new report. The Global Futures ...
Collaborative Combat Aircraft should be viewed as force-builders and not expendable vehicles, senior USAF and industry leaders said at a panel discussion during the AFA Warfare Symposium in Colorado this week. Building 1,000 such aircraft in the needed timelines will require tapping the commercial industrial ...
The Department of the Air Force’s chief information officer offered glimpses into a future with “intelligent warfare” during a webinar Nov. 30 by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. Beyond simply “informationized warfare,” with its universal digital connectivity and plentiful computing power, “intelligent warfare” goes ...
Wargame results and opportunities to asymmetrically counter adversaries are driving the Pentagon’s investment choices in new technologies, said Heidi Shyu, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering. She also said an unclassified document outlining the science and technologies underpinning the new National Defense Strategy will ...
A new report suggests that the U.S. military’s “technological edge” could erode—the Defense Department no longer able to fulfill its commitments or to project power in the customary way—if the U.S. doesn’t become a better-informed player in the global “techno-economic competition.” To that end, a ...
Artificial intelligence could bring about “biological conflict," said former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, who co-chaired the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence. AI’s applicability to biological warfare is “something which we don’t talk about very much,” Schmidt told defense reporters, but it poses grave ...
As the Department of Defense (DoD) pursues its digital modernization strategy, and innovative technologies continue to enable the USAF to maintain domain superiority, Google Cloud is emerging as an important strategic partner.
Skyborg, the Air Force’s effort to develop an artificial intelligence-enabled system to control unmanned aircraft, is ready to “graduate” and contribute to key programs such as the Next Generation Air Dominance family of systems, a top program executive officer said. But while the so-called “Vanguard” ...
U.S. Northern Command’s homeland cruise missile detection and defenses must be upgraded to respond to new threats, experts say, and a major D.C. think tank proposes a multi-layered defense that would require fewer Air Force fighters in the air and use new E-7 Wedgetails, the ...
The Air Force will look to the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in a closed solicitation that will create the Air Force's first university-affiliated research center (UARC), Air Force leaders said. The center will study tactical autonomy. The DAF will select the center's ...
When it comes to key emerging technologies like additive manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and space, the U.S. remains the leader in innovation, according to a new study prepared for the Air Force. Analyzing hundreds of million of patent applications from across the world, the report from ...
U.S. professional military education needs to be more rigorous and data-driven, and the military services need to do a better job of actually utilizing the skills service members learn through PME, lawmakers, academics, and Pentagon officials said in a congressional hearing. Summing up the concerns, ...