The Air Force is developing a new air-to-air missile, dubbed the AIM-260, that offers longer range than Raytheon’s Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile and would be used to counter the Chinese PL-15 weapon.
National Security
The Air Force on June 12 conducted the first flight test of a new hypersonic weapon, carrying the prototype on a B-52 out of Edwards AFB, Calif. The base released a video of the test on June 17.
The “merger of equals” between Raytheon and United Technologies into the new Raytheon Technologies would vault the No. 3- and No. 8-ranked US defense contractors, respectively, into a joint No. 2 position, just behind Lockheed Martin.
Air Force Magazine Almanac Historic Major Command Leaders
The House Appropriations Committee expressed a lot of gripes about how the Air Force is handling the rapid development and fielding of hypersonic technology and weapons in its fiscal 2020 budget language.
The Air Force is taking the biggest hit of all the services as the Pentagon reprograms funds to build a wall along the southern border, with about half of the procurement costs coming from appropriated USAF projects.
Twenty facilities at Offutt AFB, Neb., can’t be saved in the aftermath of a blizzard whose floodwaters covered one-third of the base in March, while another 10 can still be repaired, according to an Air Force spokesman.
As the Pentagon moves ahead in its pursuit of hypersonic weapons, the defense community has mixed opinions on whether the new missiles should be considered as strategic assets.
The Defense Innovation Board on Friday published its extensive look at the flaws in the Pentagon’s software development processes, and recommended steps to move it away from a 1990s-era view that connects its acquisition to that of hardware.