A House panel plans to let the Air Force retire some of its KC-10s in a phased approach while blocking cuts to the KC-135 fleet, with a caveat. The House Armed Services seapower and projection forces subcommittee’s markup of the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization ...
Just a day after the Air Force announced that a full-rate production decision on the KC-46 tanker will have to wait until late fiscal 2024 due to extended testing of the redesigned Remote Vision System for tanking operations, the service’s acquisition executive offered his hope ...
The Air Force has officially delayed the KC-46’s full-rate production decision milestone until 2024 as the next-generation tanker works through problems plaguing its Remote Vision System, the service announced June 8. The Air Force and the Pentagon’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation decided the ...
Senators confirmed Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. as the first black military service chief in American history in a 98-0 vote June 9. Brown, the decorated four-star general in charge of Pacific Air Forces, is expected to begin his four-year term as the ...
A readiness task force spanning several major Air Force organizations is looking at new ways to measure fleet readiness other than the controversial mission-capable rate. After trying and largely failing to get certain fighter jet fleets to reach 80 percent mission-capable, or ready to enter ...
Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center boss Maj. Gen. Shaun Morris is nominated for the top spot at the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center. Morris is also up for a promotion to lieutenant general. His nomination was sent to the Senate on May 11. If ...
Northrop Grumman will test a system that will allow fourth- and fifth-generation fighters to talk to each other, as well as “attritable” aircraft, during the next iteration of the Advanced Battle Management System experiment. The system could also be applied to the KC-46 tanker.
The Air Force is reshuffling the oversight of its fighters, bombers, and mobility aircraft, separating fighters and bombers and putting tankers and the Open Skies recap program together with other airlift programs. The reorganization is meant to put greater emphasis on bombers and extract the ...
Lawmakers are preparing their aerospace priorities for the fiscal 2021 defense policy bill, in which the Air Force hopes to see an endorsement of its modernization-heavy, $154.6 billion budget request. One provision that could have big ripple effects for the service is a push to ...
Boeing expects to spend $551 million of its own money on the design and implementation of fixes to the KC-46 Remote Vision System, as part of a new $827 million charge on the aircraft, the company announced April 29. The Air Force and Boeing early ...
The Pentagon’s top acquisition official anticipates the military will see a three-month setback across its major defense acquisition programs as the coronavirus pandemic throws contractors and program officials off their usual rhythm. “We do anticipate about a three-month slowdown at slower rates in terms of ...
Air Force researchers and mobility crews recently evaluated six airframes over the course of two weeks in an effort to better understand the airflow of mobility aircraft in case there is a need to airlift a large number of COVID-19 positive passengers. Researchers placed systems ...