There’s a new X-plane in the Air Force’s fleet. The Air Force Test Pilot School in June redesignated the NF-16D Variable In-flight Simulator Aircraft as the X-62A, allowing the aircraft to be used for testing the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Skyborg program. The aircraft, originally ...
The Air Force’s former acquisition boss has landed a new job as the CEO of a Silicon Valley-backed startup that specializes in many of the same technologies he championed during his time with the service. Will Roper was announced as the new chief executive officer ...
The Skyborg software and hardware suite allowing unmanned aircraft to team with crewed ones flew for the first time April 29, the Air Force said, launching a series of experiments meant to prove the safety and effectiveness of the approach.
The Air Force saw 72 aviation accidents over the course of fiscal 2020—up from 62 in fiscal 2019—including an A-29 crash that partially disabled an American Airman, according to Air Force Safety Center data. Thirteen of the 72 total accidents caused injury or death. The ...
The Air Force’s science advisers say the service needs to make its approach to cutting-edge “Vanguard” programs more concrete and repeatable—and to ditch them when things don’t work out. USAF leaders asked the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board to grade how the Vanguard concept is ...
A XQ-58 Valkyrie drone payload translated the incompatible signals of stealthy F-22 and F-35 fighters in a Dec. 9 test, enabling the aircraft to talk together and pass combat information between them. Air Force Chief Architect Preston Dunlap said the test shouldn't be viewed as ...
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 ...
Three companies will move on to flight experiments as part of the Air Force’s Skyborg drone program, the service said Dec. 7. Kratos earned $37.8 million, Boeing earned $25.7 million, and General Atomics earned $14.3 million to continue on in the program, the Air Force ...
Low-cost, attritable aircraft will likely reshape the fleet design outlined in “The Air Force We Need” white paper of 2018, panelists said during an Oct. 1 event hosted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. The technology's rapid advance is causing service force designers to ...
Boeing, General Atomics, Kratos, and Northrop Grumman received indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts that allow them to compete for Skyborg Vanguard Program delivery orders, the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center announced on July 23. Skyborg is an affordable unmanned system that will partner with ...
The Next-Generation Air Dominance program's acquisition strategy will be finished this summer, service acquisition chief Will Roper reported June 9 at a Mitchell Institute Aerospace Nation streaming event. He's assigned a team to assess whether the "Digital Century Series" model for the aircraft will cost ...
Air Force researchers are designing an autonomous aircraft that can take down a manned plane in air-to-air combat, with the goal of pitting the two against each other in July 2021. Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, head of the Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, said the ...