China’s approach to developing a sixth-generation fighter is similar to that of the Air Force—a family of systems with an “exponential” improvement in stealth over current platforms—and China both knows how to pursue that technology and is moving rapidly to develop it iteratively, Air Combat ...
The Air Force should take a rapid but iterative, building-block approach to developing the concept of Collaborative Combat Aircraft--uncrewed airplanes that will aid the crewed ones with sensing, jamming and carrying weapons--or it may get the concept expensively wrong, Air Combat Command's Gen. Mark D. ...
The U.S. has lost "conventional overmatch," and needs a sustained investment in combat air forces to restore it, Air Combat Command chief Gen. Mark Kelly said at ASC 2022. The investment is needed not just to have a quality Air Force but to ensure the ...
The Air Force doesn’t want its new “collaborative combat aircraft” to be exclusively part of the Next Generation Air Dominance system but is looking at other air- and ground-based platforms to direct such uncrewed airplanes, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. ...
The Air Force propulsion program tasked with producing engines for the Next Generation Air Dominance fighter awarded contracts to a mix of engine makers and aircraft builders Aug. 19, hinting that integration could be a priority in the prototyping process. GE Aviation, Pratt & Whitney, ...
Skyborg, the Air Force’s effort to develop an artificial intelligence-enabled system to control unmanned aircraft, is ready to “graduate” and contribute to key programs such as the Next Generation Air Dominance family of systems, a top program executive officer said. But while the so-called “Vanguard” ...
After working together closely to help develop and deploy the F-35, the United Kingdom and the United States have pursued different programs when it comes to sixth-generation fighters. But that doesn’t mean the two countries and their air forces won’t collaborate in the future on ...
The Air Force will likely make a decision this summer on whether to insert Advanced Engine Transition Program powerplants into the F-35 fleet, Secretary Frank Kendall said, because he doesn’t want to waste money on further delay if the program isn’t going forward. “We need ...
Teams of autonomous vehicles collaborating with a crewed airplane, in which each aircraft in the formation performs a unique mission on its own, is far more effective than the so-called “loyal wingman” approach, in which a piloted aircraft pairs with just one similarly-equipped, autonomous multimission ...
The crewed, central airplane in the Next Generation Air Dominance system won’t follow early timetables that called for new versions to be fielded about every five years because it’s simply too complex, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall revealed. And while the program has entered formal ...
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said lower-cost unmanned platforms are key to closing any capability gaps created by reducing the fleet in the near-term while the service invests in capabilities that will enable it to compete with peer adversary China in the long-term. "By having ...
Unmanned aerial vehicles and autonomous aircraft may provide a solution to operating in heavily contested domains such as the Taiwan Straits, according to a panel of expert who suggested operationalizing artificial intelligence for such purposes sooner rather than later. The group gathered virtually to help ...