Boeing disclosed April 26 that its KC-46A Pegasus tanker incurred a new $245 million charge in the first quarter of 2023, driving a $211 million loss for the company’s defense sector saddled with fixed-price development contracts. Boeing’s charges on the KC-46A are now up to over $7 billion, according to a Boeing spokesperson. Company executives previously warned that the charge, which Reuters noted is linked to supplier quality issues with the 767’s center fuel tanks, would be coming but did not share the sum ahead of the earnings call today.
Capitol Hill’s legislative process to authorize new acquisition programs is far too slow, especially in an era in which continuing resolutions (CR) are the norm despite a need to rapidly progress to counter China’s expansion, the Air Force says. To quickly develop and buy the systems the military requires, Congress needs to drop some of its authority and let departments get a head start on new start programs, the service contends. The proposal, crafted within the Air Force, approved by all services, and eventually cleared by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) this month, seeks to expand on existing authorities to allow early stages of acquisitions to begin ahead of congressional approval, says Andrew Hunter, the Air Force’s assistant secretary of acquisition.
Driven by advancements in technology and research, the Air Force and Space Force are adapting how they train their warfighters to complete the missions at hand. Keep up with all the latest news on changes and improvements to the services’ training enterprises.
The Defense Department’s chief software officer is leaning into recent military initiatives that train troops to write code as part of the Pentagon’s efforts to modernize its digital infrastructure and more rapidly respond to threats. Rob Vietmeyer, who works for the Pentagon’s chief information officer, pointed to the creation of Army and Marine Corps software factories as the Defense Department moves to build platforms that enable continuous updates in a shift away from its previous acquisition-centric approach.
The United States’ adversaries will likely target the communications abilities vital to multi-domain operations in a future war, and military commanders will have to be ready to operate during such disruptions, experts said April 26. The U.S. military’s ability to fight a network-integrated war, in which it can use vast arrays of sensors, satellites and communications nodes to deliver large amounts of integrated firepower, is one of its key advantages, said Andrew Metrick, a defense fellow at the Center for a New American Security think tank.
The Space Force’s forward planning unit has completed a “force design” that lays out the parameters of a new hybrid military/commercial internet in space, known as the “outernet,” designed to link all of the service’s mission-specific networks together—and acquisition planners are now working on transferring that plan into a reality, a senior service official said April 26.
U.S. intelligence holds that Russia will be able to fund the war in Ukraine for at least another year, even under the heavy and increasing weight of unprecedented sanctions, according to leaked U.S. military documents. The previously unreported documents provide a rare glimpse into Washington’s understanding of the effectiveness of its own economic measures, and of the tenor of the response they have met in Russia, where U.S. intelligence finds that senior officials, agencies and the staff of oligarchs are fretting over the painful disruptions—and adapting to them.
The Department of the Air Force is requesting new authorities from Congress that would allow the services to begin development work on brand new programs before funding is appropriated, with the aim of speeding up military modernization. However, acquisition experts say that lawmakers may be hesitant to grant such powers to the Pentagon for a variety of reasons.
As regulators eye the proposed acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne, one of the rocket manufacturer’s top customers warned against assuming the deal would go through. In “the current antitrust environment, no deal is certain until it is actually done, so we'll have to see how this plays out,” Raytheon Technologies CEO Greg Hayes said April 25 on the company’s quarterly earnings call.
More than a half million veteran claims have been filed under the PACT Act, the landmark legislation passed last year that eased requirements for many veterans exposed to burn pits and other battlefield pollutants to apply for disability benefits, the Department of Veterans Affairs said April 26. The Department of Veterans Affairs has so far processed more than 203,000 of those 500,000 PACT Act claims, resulting in more than $1 billion in compensation, with additional funds expected to be allocated as it works through all of the applications.
Like the other services, the U.S. Air Force is using more and more virtual and simulated training technology, which is generating volumes of data. The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Human Effectiveness Directorate is trying to determine if the right data are being collected and how to use it for maximum training effect.
Three Russian military aircraft flying without transponder signals have been intercepted in international airspace over the Baltic Sea, Germany's Luftwaffe said on April 26. Germany and Britain sent Eurofighter jets to identify the two Sukhoi Su-27 fighter aircraft and one Ilyushin Il-20 aircraft, the German air force said on Twitter.
The 73-year-old remains of an American veteran of the Korean War have been identified, the United States and South Korea revealed April 26. The joint announcement from President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol identified the remains as belonging to Cpl. Luther H. Story, who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 1951 for his display of "conspicuous bravery during intense combat" near South Korea's Pusan Perimeter in September 1950, according to the White House.