A year after the House Armed Services Committee passed its fiscal 2020 defense policy bill in an unusually partisan fashion, the panel appears to be taking a step back from major fireworks and aerospace programmatic shifts in its 2021 legislation. The full committee’s version of ...
The Senate Armed Services Committee’s defense spending plan for 2021 would give the Air Force and Space Force largely what they want, with some notable tweaks. “What this bipartisan bill does is straightforward: care for our troops; preserve peace through strength; and defend this great ...
A problem with an inert gas system meant to protect F-35 fighters if they're struck by lightning has led to a safety order to avoid thunderstorms. Lockheed Martin advised the Air Force to route F-35s around potential lightning conditions until the issue is resolved, the ...
Members of one House committee are calling for an investigation into Lockheed Martin for its handling of F-35 spare parts, while another has crafted language in its markup of the 2021 defense policy bill calling for an assessment of the Joint Strike Fighter’s troubled sustainment ...
Two B-2s linked up with Norwegian F-35s north of the Arctic Circle on June 18 to demonstrate long-range strategic integration, as the Air Force is set to release a new strategy on how it will operate in the Arctic, the head of U.S. Air Forces ...
Fighter jets won support among senators in new defense policy legislation that also raised questions about some of the Air Force’s top priorities. The Senate Armed Services Committee approved a $740.5 billion version of the fiscal 2021 defense policy bill 25-2 on June 10. Its ...
President Donald Trump has nominated Lt. Gen. Mark Kelly to receive his fourth star and take over as commander of ACC and Lt. Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost to receive her fourth star and take over as commander of AMC. Kelley is the deputy chief of ...
An F-35A fighter jet’s landing gear collapsed at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, on June 8 when the aircraft was returning from a routine training flight, according to a base spokesperson. The accident occurred at 10:45 a.m. local time. The pilot, part of the 388th ...
The F-15E Strike Eagle is the first Air Force aircraft to prove it is compatible with the refurbished B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb, Sandia National Laboratories announced on June 8. “We were able to test the B61-12 through all operational phases and we have extremely high ...
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 ...
Four B-52s flew directly from North Dakota to the Arctic, integrating with Norwegian F-35s and F-16s for a long-duration strategic bomber task force mission on June 3. The mission is the latest in a series of bomber flights to Europe, which have recently featured the ...
The Navy on June 1 awarded a contract to Lockheed Martin to upgrade the F-35's Suppression and Destruction of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD/DEAD) capabilities. The contract provides $26.7 million to engineer changes to the F-35 for the "full up" mission, presumably to add weapons and/or ...