The Air Force has not technically given up on the E-10 aircraft as a replacement for both the E-3 AWACS and the E-8 Joint STARS, according to Lt. Gen. Stephen Wood. Wood says that the E-10 is in a “strategic pause” to allow an examination of its costs and to “synchronize with the other services” what it will do and what supporting communications architecture it will need. Wood wouldn’t say how long the “pause” would last, but there’s no plan to go beyond a one-airplane technology demonstrator at this point. However, USAF and the other services have been “directed” to examine the possibilities of a common platform they can all use, he said. Pentagon officials have previously suggested that USAF may partner on the Navy’s new maritime patrol aircraft.
The Defense Innovation Unit is gearing up for the first flight of its commercially developed hypersonic testbed as soon as the end of February—part of a larger project to quickly increase the cadence of the Pentagon’s hypersonic flight testing and field advanced, high-speed systems and components at scale.
