Randall G. Walden, head of the Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office, where he has directed development of the B-21 bomber and the Advanced Battle Management System, is moving to a new job at the Pentagon to advise the Defense Department's acquisition and sustainment chief, William ...
B-21
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The Stand-in Attack Weapon is to be a pathfinder system in two ways, industry and Air Force officials said. The SiAW will both open a corridor through enemy air defenses and potentially create a new way of buying weapons. The Air Force is looking for ...
Pledging to pursue “speed without sacrificing discipline” in the acquisition process, Gen. Duke Z. Richardson took command of Air Force Materiel Command on June 13, relieving Gen. Arnold W. Bunch Jr., who has run the service’s acquisition, research, development, logistics, and test organization since 2019. ...
Three of five competitors for the Stand-in Attack Weapon, or SiAW, got small contracts to get the project going, the Air Force said. Lockheed Martin said it is the lead integrator for SiAW, but L3Harris and Northrop Grumman are also participating. The SiAW will succeed ...
Loads testing on the first B-21 Raider bomber is progressing well and matching computer predictions, and a formal rollout will closely follow completion of these tests and final equipment installs in the coming weeks, the program director said. Six B-21s are in production at Northrop ...
The Air Force says the B-21 Raider won't make its first flight until 2023; about a six-month delay from the last official estimates. No reason was given for the delay. While other programs have recently chalked up schedule slips to supply chain and labor shortages, ...
With a repeat of a hypersonic missile test coming up in the summer and the potential to speed up production of the B-21 Raider, the Air Force is “committed” to putting hypersonic missiles on its long-range bombers, said Lt. Gen. Duke Z. Richardson, the top ...
In a 2027 invasion of Taiwan by China, neither side achieves air superiority, both sides take heavy losses, and China finds little hope for a fait accompli, according to a recent wargame run by the Center for a New American Security. The game highlighted the ...
Unmanned aerial vehicles and autonomous aircraft may provide a solution to operating in heavily contested domains such as the Taiwan Straits, according to a panel of expert who suggested operationalizing artificial intelligence for such purposes sooner rather than later. The group gathered virtually to help ...
The Pentagon’s newly installed acquisition czar is planning “deep dives” into efforts to modernize each leg of the nuclear triad, starting with the program he views as having the most significant risk—the Air Force's LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile, known until recently as the Ground ...
The Air Force may not need more than the 100 B-21s it originally planned to buy because it can supplement them with new "collaborative" uncrewed aircraft, Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. told the Senate Armed Services Committee. He and Secretary Frank Kendall ...
