The Defense Budget Drops; F-35 Fixes; Planners Work on Space Force; and more ...
Air
Still Unexplained
Step aside, fighter jets: Autonomous drones and manned spaceflight are the future of military aerospace, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla., Feb. 28. Musk, the serial entrepreneur and billionaire whose rockets take Pentagon sensors and satellites to space, ...
Boeing is developing a long-range version of its Joint Direct Attack Munition called the Power JDAM, adding an engine to extend its range by 20 times over the conventional glide version of the weapon, company officials said.
It’s still not known how many F-35 fighters were assembled with mixed-up Inconel and titanium fasteners, but Lockheed Martin’s analysis shows no safety of flight risk that would require dedicated fleetwide inspections. Company Vice President and Program Manager Greg Ulmer told reporters on Feb. 27 ...
Private aerial refueling may help ease the intense demand for tankers, as service leaders and U.S. Transportation Command debate the plan to retire legacy refuelers. The Air Force’s fiscal 2021 budget request calls for retiring 16 KC-10s and 13 KC-135s. Top USAF and TRANSCOM officials ...
Members of Congress who've heard the Air Force's explanation of why it's trading capacity now to get connectivity later back the move, Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein told reporters February 27. But he expects a lot more explanation will be needed. “The risk is ...
While NAS JRB Fort Worth-Carswell, Texas, is slated to become the primary home of Air Force Reserve Command’s future F-35As, AFRC is now reexamining three bases it has deemed “reasonable alternatives”—Whiteman Air Force Base, Mont., Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., and Homestead Air Reserve Base—to ...
Air Combat Command is shifting from a "fighter roadmap" to a "capabilities" roadmap that will capture many of the things fighters do today, but likely with new types of unmanned systems and "attritable" aircraft, Gen. Mike Holmes told reporters Feb. 27. The idea of a ...