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 Air Force’s “4+1” fighter plan for the 2020s, unveiled in recent months, will leave the service with a fleet that’s too small and improperly configured to deal with peer threats. What’s needed is a plan that emphasizes stealth aircraft; rapidly retires non-stealthy and expensive-to-maintain ...
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 ...
Air Force F-15s and F-16s are now cleared to refuel from new KC-46A tankers using the air-to-air refueling boom, the head of Air Mobility Command, Gen. Mike Minihan, directed Oct. 15. The order is the third "interim capability release" since July clearing aircraft to refuel ...
Chinese officials at the Zhuhai air show forecast an increase in production and shortened development time for stealth fighters, without giving specifics. To match the U.S. Air Force's fifth-generation fighter inventories—not even including the Department of the Navy's—China would have to build 125 such jets ...
Pratt & Whitney is testing its Adaptive Engine Technology Program XA101 powerplant and has already demonstrated the objective goals for the program, company military engines president Matthew Bromberg said. He estimates that up to 70 percent of the technology could be fitted to improve fighter ...
The range of current Air Force weapons compels pilots of stealth aircraft to get too close to their targets, risking that they’ll be seen and shot down, Air Combat Command boss Gen. Mark D. Kelly said Sep. 22. The service must have longer-range “fifth-generation weapons” ...
Blue Force Technologies expects a contract in the next month authorizing it to proceed with development of a stealthy, unmanned aerial system for Air Force fifth-generation fighters to train against. The company expects to build four aircraft for a demonstration program, with first flight in ...
The Air Force won't be able to retrofit its existing fighters with new technology created in the Adaptive Engine Transition Program, the service's program executive officer for fighters and advanced aircraft reported. He and the propulsion directorate are instead partnering on squeezing more capability out ...
The Air Force's first application of low-cost attritable aircraft systems will be as stealthy, jamming adversary systems for F-22 and F-35 fighters to practice against, Gen. Mark D. Kelly, head of Air Combat Command, said in a virtual seminar presented by the Air Force's Life ...
A maintenance error, committed after an F-22 was washed, affected its control inputs and caused the Raptor to crash May 15, 2020, at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. The pilot safely ejected, but the aircraft was totaled, with an estimated loss of $201 million, according ...