Defense Department officials have long said they sought to release an unclassified summary of the AirSea Battle concept, which a small office in the Pentagon oversees. Earlier this week, the office finally lifted the veil—somewhat—by releasing a 12-page summary of the “ASB Concept, version 9.0” and the accompanying Fiscal 2013 implementation plan. “The purpose of ASB is not to simply conduct operations more jointly,” states the document. “It is to increase operational advantage across all domains, enhance service capabilities, and mitigate vulnerabilities.” The document illustrates the challenges presented by anti-access and area-denial threats; illustrates what the ASB concept is and what it hopes to achieve; and discusses how it fits into joint force development and how the Pentagon is implementing the concept in the operational force. The summary points to several activities to institutionalize ASB across the services. These include implementing ASB ideas in training and education, putting characteristics of A2/AD environments into joint and service exercises, and developing “multiservice” tactics, techniques, and procedures. (See also AirSea Battle’s Battle from Air Force Magazine’s 2013 archive.)
Anduril and General Atomics will develop their Collaborative Combat Aircraft for the Air Force, beating out Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, the service announced on April 24. But any of the non-selected companies can compete to actually manufacture the eventual design, the Air Force said.