The Air Force has a word of caution for those who are urging that autonomous systems supplant crewed platforms: we still need a human in the loop.
News last fall that SpaceX owner and CEO Elon Musk restricted the Ukrainian military’s use of his Starlink satellite broadband service to stymie an attack on Russian forces highlighted the extraordinary power wielded in that war by a single business owner with some outlandish ideas. But ...
The Space Force is bolstering its satellite network—and its ties to SpaceX—with a $70 million contract for the company’s new Starshield service. Starshield, often described as a government equivalent to SpaceX’s Starlink network, is made up of satellites in low-Earth orbit (LEO) and will provide ...
Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. "Jay" Raymond offered some of his early observations on the role of space activities in the war in Ukraine. After nearly a three-year pandemic hiatus, many of the world's top national security and foreign affairs officials gathered in ...
Reports of production troubles on the SpaceX rocket that could contend for military cargo deliveries happened to coincide with a different company’s concept receiving an early nod—one that might not require a rocket at all.
SpaceX will carry data-transport and missile-tracking satellites to orbit for the Space Development Agency, the Pentagon said Dec. 31. SpaceX won a $150.5 million contract for two launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., starting in September 2022. The entire constellation of up to 28 ...
When the revived U.S. Space Command got up and running more than one year ago, Pentagon leaders faced the question: They knew they needed the group again, but how would it work? The organization, which manages operations of the satellites, radars, and other support systems ...
L3Harris and SpaceX won contracts Oct. 5 to provide the first ballistic missile warning satellites for the Space Development Agency, growing the number of companies working on the future military constellation to four. L3Harris received $193.6 million and SpaceX got $149.2 million to design, develop, ...
Air Force researchers are designing an autonomous aircraft that can take down a manned plane in air-to-air combat, with the goal of pitting the two against each other in July 2021. Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, head of the Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, said the ...
Step aside, fighter jets: Autonomous drones and manned spaceflight are the future of military aerospace, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla., Feb. 28. Musk, the serial entrepreneur and billionaire whose rockets take Pentagon sensors and satellites to space, ...