Fighter pilots can’t yet fire lasers on their real jets, but a new wargame series will let them try it out in cyberspace. Armed with computers and virtual reality headsets, F-16 pilots, F-15E weapon system officers, and an E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System air ...
The Air Force's highly classified Long-Range Standoff nuclear cruise missile program is running ahead of schedule and could enter the engineering and manufacturing development phase in May—as much as nine months ahead of schedule, the Air Force's deputy chief of staff for strategic deterrence and ...
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 ...
A group of networked bombs failed to hit the right target in the Air Force’s first flight test of its nascent weapon-swarming technology last month, posing a new obstacle as the service tries to speed the concept to the battlefield. On Dec. 15, the Air ...
The Air Force's in-house software factories have become hacking targets because they are accelerating the service's fielding of new capabilities, and must be defended as the "crown jewels" they are. The Pentagon needs to apply "Zero-Trust" technology in its data systems, not only keeping hackers ...
Dynetics and its partners are planning next steps for the Gremlins drone swarming program after the aircraft failed to dock with a C-130 in recent flight tests. A third round of demonstrations began Oct. 28 at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. The three X-61As individually tried ...
The Air Force's technology incubator, which doles out more than 1,000 small research contracts worth up to $50,000 each year, unveiled an advance look at its 2021 programs during its virtual Accelerate event, Dec. 7-11—the first organized by the newly relaunched AFWERX 2.0. AFWERX 2.0 ...
AFWERX’s contribution to the national Covid-19 pandemic response seems destined to enter the annals of heroic procurement tales. But, it almost didn’t happen.
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 ...
New Pentagon acquisition rules are making it possible to field the AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) hypersonic missile five years faster than would be possible under the old rules, top USAF uniformed acquisition official Lt. Gen. Duke Z. Richardson said Dec. 3. He also ...
Aerospace experts offered a peek into how joint all-domain command and control might begin changing the Air Force over the next few years, during RAND Corp.’s West Coast Aerospace Forum on Dec. 2. Expect the upcoming fiscal 2022 and 2023 budgets to majorly accelerate combat ...