The U.S. military has worked in space for decades, providing GPS to the masses and bouncing combat messages through satellites to troops around the world. In some ways, though, the Space Force feels like it's starting from scratch. Officials are looking for ways to keep ...
The U.S. military operating in Syria regularly confronts “great power competition” while conducting ongoing counterterrorism operations, facing regular interference and Russian aircraft close by in a confluence of threats, Air Force and Space Force officials said. “Great power competition … is alive and well in ...
A group of networked bombs failed to hit the right target in the Air Force’s first flight test of its nascent weapon-swarming technology last month, posing a new obstacle as the service tries to speed the concept to the battlefield. On Dec. 15, the Air ...
The Air Force must make the mindset change from focusing just on preparation for conflict to day-to-day competition with Russia, China and other adversaries, Air Combat Command chief Gen. Mark D. Kelly said Dec. 11. The service will be constantly vying for superiority in the ...
Military troops in the Space Force will someday deploy to orbit, one of the service's top operations officials said Sept. 29. “At some point, yes, we will be putting humans into space,” Maj. Gen. John E. Shaw, head of the Space Force's Space Operations Command ...
The Air Force Research Laboratory’s robotic pilot has returned to the sky, following a mishap that grounded the system last year. The AFRL Center for Rapid Innovation and DZYNE Technologies Incorporated’s ROBOPilot flew for about 2.2 hours on Sept. 24 at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. ...
Military researchers are eyeing multiple projects that could become the next Space Force “vanguard” programs, the high-profile ventures that receive extra money and attention from across the Department of the Air Force. The “Precise” initiative and the Cislunar Highway Patrol System, which were recently selected ...
A promising experimental Air Force satellite is one step closer to being ready to launch. The Air Force Research Laboratory on July 30 said the service’s Navigation Technology Satellite-3 passed a critical design milestone in June that lets the contractor, L3Harris Technologies, start to build ...
Army Lt. Gen. James H. Dickinson on July 28 outlined his plans to continue ingraining space operations expertise around the U.S. military, if confirmed as the next boss of U.S. Space Command. Dickinson, currently SPACECOM’s deputy commander, would be the first uniformed officer outside the ...
House appropriators are planning to offer the Pentagon $694.6 billion for operations, personnel, and procurement, plus another $10.5 billion for military construction, in fiscal 2021. The Defense Department funding proposal is $1.3 billion higher than DOD received in fiscal 2020, but nearly $4 billion lower ...
More than two dozen states are vying to become the future home of U.S. Space Command, a far broader field than was previously considered. “The Department of the Air Force has received nominations from 26 states,” Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said. “We were pleased ...
A top space operations official outlined how America’s foray into commercial space travel could shape the military’s work, on the heels of SpaceX’s successful Crew Dragon launch to the International Space Station on May 30. NASA and SpaceX launched two astronauts into orbit from U.S. ...