Former Air Force acquisition chief Will Roper's transformational ideas on how to buy new systems will stay on track without him, senior service officials said Feb. 24. Digital engineering, agile software development, and open architectures will play a part in all new systems. But sticking ...
Air Force acquisition boss Will Roper told reporters Jan. 14 he hopes to wrap up at least two final items in his last week on the job: signing a strategy to develop and buy a mini-internet for the military to use in flight, and finishing ...
The Air Force will flight test the U.S. military’s first hypersonic missile this month, Air Force acquisition boss Will Roper said Dec. 14 at the inaugural Doolittle Leadership Center Forum. Speaking on the theme of “From Acquisition to Lethality,” Roper also described progress on the ...
Exhausted by almost 20 years of nonstop combat against violent extremism, the Air Force is seeking a new cycle of modernization and refurbishment, Air Combat Command chief Gen. Mark D. Kelly said Dec. 11. The new construct would routinely change out old gear and modernize ...
The Air Force's top weapons buyer is worried the top-secret Next Generation Air Dominance program might become an “unintended casualty” of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lawmakers in the final draft of the fiscal 2021 defense policy bill are cutting $70 million from the NGAD program for ...
Lawmakers weighed in on three of the Air Force’s top-priority technology development efforts in the final draft of the fiscal 2021 defense policy bill, offering more money and more oversight as the programs mature. The Low-Cost Attritable Aircraft Technology initiative, hypersonic weapons, and the Next-Generation ...
Watch an adapted version of Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics Will Roper's talk on “Disruptive Agility for a Disruptive World.” Complete transcript included.
The Air Force still needs more than 300 combat squadrons, but the biggest priority is not number of squadrons but capability, Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. said Sept. 22. He also suggested the records set by the Next Generation Air Dominance prototype ...
The U.S. Air Force is leading the way within the military on adopting new technologies and adapting how it operates to be ready for “great power competition,” both with technological advancements such as the Advanced Battle Management System and new ways to deploy aircraft such ...
The Air Force is already flying a Next Generation Air Dominance combat airplane, which was designed and prototyped using new digital methods, service acquisition executive Will Roper said Sept. 15. The revelation was meant to assure people that the new approach works, works quickly, and ...
Due to pandemic-related slowdowns, Lockheed Martin expects to deliver 122 F-35s in calendar year 2020—20 less than planned, company executive vice president for aeronautics Michele A. Evans said in a Sept. 9 interview. The tally will be gradually made up over two years, in order ...
While the Air Force has moved to put the F-15EX fighter program under contract, it's not obliged to buy the entire notional fleet of 144 of the jets, and could terminate the program at any time, according to Air Force Materiel Command. It may wish ...