The U.S. Air Force recently took a significant step in its push to integrate crewed fighters with semi-autonomous drones, the service says. Pilots of an Air Force F-16C and an F-15E each controlled two XQ-58A Valkyrie drones in an “air combat training scenario,” the Air Force ...
Technology
The stealth technology that gave the U.S. its airpower edge over the last 30 years is being overcome by new sensors that will make it hard for anything to hide, putting a premium again on speed and maneuverability, the deputy director of DARPA told AFA's ...
House lawmakers are encouraging the Air Force and U.S. Special Operations Command to work together as each pursues long-range, long-endurance reconnaissance drones. Both entities are investing in unmanned assets that can slip into highly defended areas, loiter over a particularly valuable target for days at ...
The U.S. strike on Iran's nuclear development facilities saw the first use of the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, a weapon specifically designed for such a mission more than 20 years ago. The Air Force B-2s were the only platform with the stealth and carrying capacity ...
Air Force Reveals Range and Inventory Goals for F-47, CCAs By John A. Tirpak The F-47 Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter will have a combat radius greater than 1,000 miles—nearly double that of the F-22—and the Air Force plans to acquire...
Still Smaller, Still Older “The fleet is aging; 30-plus years on average. Some of the … critical platforms, are significantly older than that. When I was a navigator, I never flew a KC-135 that was younger than me. They’re...
Government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton is looking to Formula One car racing to gain a combat edge for autonomous military vehicles.
Today’s armament maintainers are tasked with performing flightline (O-Level) maintenance with an assortment of legacy test sets that greatly limit the ability to quickly and efficiently verify armament system readiness, diagnose failures, and ultimately return the aircraft to full mission...