The Air Force plans to spend more than $9 billion through the end of the decade to keep the F-22 capable until its successor, the Next-Generation Air Dominance family of systems, becomes available. New sensors and fuel tanks dominate procurement, with other funding going to ...
A GAO official told the House Armed Services Committee that the Pentagon still doesn’t have a portfolio-wide plan for tactical aviation, which would help itself and Congress identify true priorities and avoid duplication of effort. He also said the agency is worried that the F-35’s ...
Though touted as “loyal wingmen,” Collaborative Combat Aircraft may not always be paired with crewed aircraft and may function only in concert with one another or weapons in “swarms,” the better to complicate an enemy’s ability to track and counter them, senior Air Force CCA ...
The Air Force is asking for about $6 billion to develop Collaborative Combat Aircraft over the future years defense plan, up from a get-started amount of nearly $400 million in fiscal 2024. One of the first types of CCAs will be for “spectrum warfare,” but ...
The Air Force's “4+1” fighter plan is rapidly becoming the “4” plan as the service retires A-10s faster than it expected to, Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr. said March 15. The retirements are needed to pay for new systems to keep USAF ...
The Air Force couldn't find a place for Adaptive Engine Technology Program powerplants on the F-35 in its fiscal 2024 budget request, opting to harvest what it can from its $4 billion investment and press on to the Next-Generation Advanced Propulsion program.
Among the new aircraft programs the Air Force included in its fiscal 2024 budget request are uncrewed, autonomous wingmen for its fighters, a next-generation tanker program, a fast-as-possible replacement for its aged E-3 AWACS air battle management jets, and a new airborne command post. It ...
The Air Force should focus on fighter pilots learning to operate with one Collaborative Combat Aircraft before asking them to control two or more, ACC commander Gen. Mark D. Kelly said. The first CCAs should probably have some kind of electronic warfare mission, he added.
The Air Force will field 200 Next-Generation Air Dominance aircraft and notionally 1,000 Collaborative Combat Aircraft, and will request funds in the fiscal 2024 budget to develop these new systems, Secretary Frank Kendall said in his keynote address at the AFA Warfare Symposium on March ...
Northrop Grumman is testing a new multimode, open-architecture RF sensor called "EMRIS" which it hopes will allow for quick, less-costly, and more adaptable sensor upgrades in a variety of systems. The multimode sensor can perform radar, communications, and electronic warfare functions simultaneously.
The Air Force is pursuing Collaborative Combat Aircraft—uncrewed aircraft that will fly as “wingmen” to crewed fighters—but must ensure they don’t get so overloaded with capability that they become unaffordable, Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. said. The upcoming fiscal 2024 budget will ...
Lockheed Martin is finishing but not delivering F-35 fighters, pending results of a Navy investigation into a recent F-35B crash, company officials said on their quarterly results call. They also revealed heavy charges against the hypersonic AGM-183 ARRW missile program and said the company's classified ...