The military services are leaving capability gaps as they divest of older aircraft but aren't coordinating their tactical aviation spending plans to minimize risk, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report. While the Pentagon agrees that it needs a portfolio approach to fighter ...
Air
The Air Force has ordered a safety stand-down for its entire fleet of B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, after an emergency landing damaged one of the billion-dollar planes Dec. 10 at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., and closed the base’s only runway.
The Air Force has handed out a $334 million contract to contractor Leidos for “Mayhem,” the secretive program aimed at developing a larger class of hypersonic system, the Pentagon announced Dec. 16. The contract comes more than two years after the Air Force first began asking ...
The many capabilities embodied by the Air Force’s next-generation B-21 Raider extend beyond conventional measures of range, payload, and radar-penetrating stealth—they also include “other things that it can be a part of that could help leverage the agility and the speed that we need to ...
From a nearby tornado to heavy snow to a closed runway, bases hosting the Air Force’s nuclear bomber fleet has dealt with a number of headaches in the past week. Air Force Global Strike Command’s fleet of nuclear-capable bombers, including the B-52 Stratofortress and B-2 ...
The Air Force has disclosed the organizational emblems on the first B-21 bomber, too faint to make out at the aircraft's Dec. 2 rollout. The heraldry is that of Air Force Materiel Command, Global Strike Command, and the 412th Test Wing.
With the Air Force poised to pour significant resources into its Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program, the service shouldn't become fixated on a particular price point for each of the unmanned aircraft to the point of neglecting capability or reliability, two of the generals helping ...
Three more “all-up” flight tests of the AGM-183 Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) must succeed before the Air Force decides whether to press on into production for the hypersonic missile, the service has told Air & Space Forces Magazine. Lockheed Martin will also have to ...
The Air Force’s new trainer jet, the T-7A, has experienced issues with its ejection system in testing, forcing contractor Boeing and the service to re-baseline the schedule for the program and delaying production deliveries of the aircraft into the second half of 2024.