Iranian-backed militias have focused attacks on key bases in Iraq, prompting U.S. contractors to leave the Iraqi Air Force’s major F-16 base as the country’s Fighting Falcons are working to increase their capacity to train and conduct airstrikes, according to a new report. The militias ...
Raytheon Intelligence and Space on April 30 received a $228 million contract for the Global Positioning System Next-Generation Operational Control System Follow-On from Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center. Known as OCX 3F, the program builds on ground control station improvements made in Blocks ...
The F-35's program director promised Congress an F-35 sustainment strategy this summer, but said it's unlikely he'll achieve the elusive goal of $25,000 cost per flying hour by 2025. Negotiating three one-year sustainment deals is a "carrot" to get a better deal from Lockheed Martin ...
House Armed Services leaders say they'll move to block adding more F-35s than requested in the fiscal 2022 budget, in hopes of letting the overtaxed sustainment system for the fighter “catch up” to the fleet already in place. Without action on sustainment costs, the Air ...
Sustainment of the F-35 is rapidly becoming the most profitable part of the program, as growing numbers of jets, bases and depots drive a greater demand for parts and services, top Lockheed Martin officials said in an April 20 corporate earnings call. The comments come ...
The Defense Department's Space Development Agency wants to blanket Earth with a constellation of low-cost, open-architecture data-relay and missile-tracking satellites whose sheer numbers, along with their 1,000-kilometer-high orbits, would theoretically thwart some modes of interference—but not all. With all going according to plan so far, ...
The United States is on a crash course to field prototype hypersonic weapons within three years, with more elaborate and mature systems to follow soon after. Flight tests will ramp up quickly this year, with follow-on tests as frequently as every six weeks over the ...
The Missile Defense Agency on March 23 awarded Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin contracts worth a total of $7.6 billion to develop technology for the Next Generation Interceptor, which will replace aging ground-based interceptors and serve as the first layer of defense against intercontinental ballistic ...
An AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon hypersonic missile is being readied for its first booster flight at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., the Air Force announced March 5. The missile that flies within the next month will not be an all-up round. Instead, the test ...
Air Combat Command is trying to move forward with an experiment it hopes will pave the way for a larger overhaul of fighter pilot training, despite pandemic-era complications. The command is working through the contracting process for the resources it needs to test the “Reforge” ...
The head of Air Combat Command isn't sure the cost of operating the F-35 will hit the desired $25,000 per hour by 2025, and he's headed out to meetings to see what can be done to make it happen. He's also concerned that China will ...
The Air Force's new tactical aviation study will determine if a surge in F-35 production is needed in order to buy out the planned 1,763 airplanes before the 2040s. But that decision also will depend on funding, contractor capacity, and the need for complementary aircraft, ...