Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has united NATO and proven a robust U.S. air and space capability that does not require a no-fly zone, but invasion could have been deterred if the U.S. had stronger air power, said experts at an AFA Warfare ...
Successfully introducing new, unmanned aircraft in the Air Force, with varying degrees of autonomy, is at risk as long as there’s widespread disagreement about what an “autonomous” aircraft actually is, according to an upcoming paper from AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. The think-tank urges ...
The U.S. won’t keep pace with China and Russia in electronic warfare if it keeps “drip feeding” organizations, according to a new paper published by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
Maturing nuclear thermal propulsion to maneuver satellites out of the way of attacks could also keep the U.S. apace with Chinese and Russian advancements, according to a new paper. In the policy paper “Maneuver Warfare in Space: The Strategic Mandate for Nuclear Propulsion,” the Mitchell ...
The commander of Space Launch Delta 30 envisions Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., as a “national spaceport” and said the launch delta is trying to figure out how to make that dream a reality. Vandenberg has plenty of room to grow, and the convenience of ...
A pair of Pentagon officials working on joint all-domain command and control say an effort is needed to address “a lack of synchronization” on the project across the services—and to potentially expand cooperation. One of the major challenges to interoperability, a policy paper contends, has ...
The Space Force has started to carve out new personnel rotations to accommodate advanced training and has turned to units for training ideas while beginning to envision what Lt. Gen. B. Chance Saltzman called an “operational test and training infrastructure,” including new simulators. Like 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 ...
Discussions within the Space Force and between it and industry partners about new architectures for satellite constellations are sometimes hampered by the extraordinarily high levels of classification involved, a Lockheed Martin executive told AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference. Information about the vulnerabilities of military ...
A vast majority of voters believe nuclear deterrence should be one of the highest priorities for the Department of Defense, with a majority also supporting modernization efforts, according to a new survey. The survey, commissioned by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies and run by ...
Airpower rapidly achieved America’s goals in the Afghanistan War 20 years ago, but a change in the mission led inexorably to this week’s chaotic exit, Air Force Association leaders said Aug. 17. The situation should teach lessons about how best to use American power in ...