House appropriators want to severely limit funding for the Air Force's new Advanced Battle Management System, while also restricting the series of ABMS exercises. The Air Force's fiscal 2021 budget calls for more than $302 million for ABMS —its “system of systems” linking space, air, ...
Technology


Technology
Michael J. K. Kratsios, the White House’s 33-year-old chief technology officer, is the new acting undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, effective July 10, the Pentagon announced July 13. He fills in behind Michael D. Griffin, whose last day was also July 10. Griffin ...
The Pentagon is expected to name the acting undersecretary of defense for research and engineering as early as July 13, with the department’s current director of defense, research, and engineering for modernization to perform the duties in the interim. Michael D. Griffin, who held the ...
The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted fragility within the defense industrial base and an overreliance on Chinese manufacturers that present a security risk, prompting U.S. policymakers to look at potential changes. Without COVID-19, the Pentagon wouldn't be as aware of problems in its supply chain or ...
Air Force officials are still looking to perfect directed-energy weapons to use against the low-tech threat of small drones before scaling up lasers and microwaves to take out cruise missiles. The Air Force’s high-power microwave weapon known as the Tactical High-Power Microwave Operational Responder, or ...
The Air Force awarded contracts to 18 additional companies this week to develop and connect a plethora of technologies as part of the Advanced Battle Management System, after the first round of 28 contracts went out May 29. The ABMS network looks to connect the ...
Bigger fleets of aircraft are easier and less costly per aircraft to manage than small ones, but that may change as the Air Force moves toward the new Digital Century Series, Air Force Materiel Command chief Gen. Arnold W. Bunch Jr. said July 1. The ...
General Electric's F110-129 engine will power the first batch of F-15EX fighters for the Air Force, under a $101.4 million contract announced June 30. The first batch was not competed because of the urgency of getting F-15EX testing underway, and the GE engine is the ...
The right balance for the future bomber fleet.