The Air Force has ordered its first E-7A Wedgetail battle management and command and control aircraft, announcing Aug. 9 it has agreed to a deal with Boeing worth $2.56 billion for two platforms. The service says the deal is for “operationally representative prototype E-7A weapons ...
While a deal on the E-7 Wedgetail airborne battle management jet may come soon, negotiations are stuck on the high price Boeing is asking for the development jets, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said recently.
More than a dozen E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control, or AWACS, aircraft lined up on the runways at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., on March 21. The crews of the distinctive E-3, with rotating radar domes perched above the fuselage, were practicing one of ...
The Air Force is pursuing Collaborative Combat Aircraft—uncrewed aircraft that will fly as “wingmen” to crewed fighters—but must ensure they don’t get so overloaded with capability that they become unaffordable, Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. said. The upcoming fiscal 2024 budget will ...
Boeing Defense, Space & Security reorganized its divisions, streamlining to help turn around the firm's struggling financial performance, the aerospace giant announced. Instead of eight divisions, the company will now have four divisions: Air Dominance; Mobility, Surveillance, and Bombers; Vertical Lift; and Space, Intelligence, and ...
Congress is of a mind to allow the Pentagon to do more multiyear procurement—in the billions of dollars—particularly of munitions, given the situation in Ukraine and its implications for other potential conflicts, Pentagon acquisition and sustainment chief William LaPlante said.
The Air Force should build its capacity and striking power with collaborative combat aircraft but must put the teaming aspect of the new class of weapons first, getting the concepts and software right at the outset to ensure that autonomous airplanes do what’s needed and ...
The Advanced Battle Management System's best chance against failing is to create a czar for command, control, and communications who will have top-down support to enforce decisions, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told reporters at AFA's Air, Space & Cyber Conference. He also discussed topics ...
The Air Force doesn’t want its new “collaborative combat aircraft” to be exclusively part of the Next Generation Air Dominance system but is looking at other air- and ground-based platforms to direct such uncrewed airplanes, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. ...
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 ...
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 ...
Ukrainian forces are making good use of their Russian-made air defense systems, and Russia’s slow progress in Ukraine is an indication of how important it is to have air superiority, said Air Combat Command boss Gen. Mark D. Kelly. However, the U.S. needs new weapons ...