The U.S. and Polish militaries have agreed on a long-negotiated plan to increase the American presence in Poland, including adding a cargo hub and drones flown by the U.S. Air Force. The Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, which the parties have not yet signed, follows last ...
Unmanned Systems
U.S. Air Force jets and Navy ships on Aug. 2 held a joint training exercise in the Black Sea near Russia’s borders together for the second time in two weeks, aiming to fine-tune their collaboration in a potential conflict. Four F-16s from the 31st Fighter ...
A leak in a cracked oil line caused an RQ-4’s engine to fail during a ferry flight to the Middle East in June 2018, and because the operations aircrews did not properly plan divert airfields en route, the Global Hawk crashed into the sea near ...
The Air Force wants its follow-on to the venerable MQ-9 Reaper to move beyond the surveillance and strike roles, and be able to conduct air-to-air and base defense missions with increased autonomy to lessen the number of people in the loop, the service’s top acquisition ...
Air Force command and control aircraft now have a combat evaluation program, with the kickoff of the first-ever Combat Sentry on July 13 at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla. Combat Sentry, similar to the live-fire Combat Hammer and Combat Archer evaluations, puts two E-3 Sentry ...
U.S. Air Forces in Europe moved its contingent of MQ-9 Reapers northeast to Estonia, where they can keep a closer eye on neighboring Russia. The contractor-owned, contractor-operated MQ-9s, related personnel, and support equipment moved to Amari Air Base in Estonia from their regular home of ...
U.S. forces in the Middle East are not prepared enough to defend against swarms of small drones, and the Pentagon needs to work harder to get ahead of the enduring threat, the head of U.S. Central Command warned. Small unmanned aerial systems, which can be ...
A contingent of RQ-4 Global Hawks are now flying out of Yokota Air Base, Japan, after making their regular trip from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, to avoid bad weather. The RQ-4s often move to Japan to stay safe from Andersen's typhoon season. A Pacific ...
Air Force researchers are designing an autonomous aircraft that can take down a manned plane in air-to-air combat, with the goal of pitting the two against each other in July 2021. Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, head of the Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, said the ...