Six months into its effort to field thousands of attritable, autonomous systems, the Pentagon is planning the second iteration of the Replicator program—and this time, software will be the focus. Capt. Alex Campbell, director of the Defense Innovation Unit’s naval portfolio, said the second tranche of Replicator systems will emphasize the software needed to connect the sensors and drones it wants to field over the next 18 months.
Tomorrow’s aerial tanking fleet will include some stealthy aircraft with “exquisite capabilities” that can fly into “extreme threat areas,” as well as a larger group of more conventional tankers, the head of the Air Force’s mobility arm said. “It's not one airplane. It's a system, so it's not one-size-fits-all. I'm not looking to develop a fleet that has to handle every threat environment,” Gen. Mike Minihan, commander of Air Mobility Command, told reporters at the Air & Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium.
The Space Force celebrated its fourth anniversary in December, and in many ways has become ingrained inside the Pentagon. But America’s youngest military service is still lacking in one key way: it is the only branch of the armed forces without its own judge advocate unit. In this op-ed, Maj. Aaron Brynildson, an Air Force JAG, argues it is time for that to change.
When the Air Force selected five prime vendors for the first increment of its ambitious Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drone wingman program, as first reported by Breaking Defense, it may have been surprising to some for a name that was left off the list: Kratos Defense and Security Solutions. ... Kratos officials have not said if they made a play for a prime spot in the first increment, and since have been coy about whether they’re subcontracting with another prime for any of the work. But now, as the Air Force prepares for the second round of the program, Steve Fendley, president of Kratos’s unmanned systems division, told Breaking Defense the company wants to take prime status of its own.
The Pentagon’s top weapons buyer suggested to lawmakers that work related to the Air Force’s Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) project will move forward in some fashion beyond this fiscal year despite budget uncertainty and hiccups with testing.
JoAnne Bass recalled getting a phone call on her birthday, one that would change not just her life and career but also history. It was July 15, 2020, and she was waiting for a phone call from then-Air Force Chief of Staff Charles “C.Q.” Brown, who was tasked with selecting the next chief master sergeant of the Air Force. She realized she hadn’t thought about what she would say if she was told she hadn’t gotten the job—then her phone rang. Brown told her she would be the first woman in the history of the Department of Defense to be the senior enlisted leader of a service branch.
The U.K. and Latvia are spearheading a "capability coalition" to provide Ukraine with up to a million battlefield drones to bolster its war efforts. In a statement released Feb. 15, the U.K. government said the coalition would “scale up and streamline” the supply of drones, including first-person view (FPV) drones—the cheap airborne weapons that have become a vital tool in Ukraine’s efforts to push back Russia’s invasion.
The U.S. Space Force canceled a multibillion-dollar Northrop Grumman Corp. program to develop a classified military communications satellite because of increased costs, difficulties developing its payload, and a schedule delay, according to a regulatory filing and people familiar with the decision.
The FBI announced Feb. 15 it successfully disrupted a Russian GRU-led hacking campaign that infiltrated more than a thousand home and small business routers that were used to carry out cyber operations against countries around the world, including in the U.S.
With a war raging nearby and the threat that a second Trump administration could pull the U.S. out of NATO, Europe has ratcheted up military spending. Arms manufacturers are working around-the clock, and new factories are going up to meet demand. But Europe has a long way to go—and tough choices to make—if it aims to reduce its dependence on U.S. military support and face down Russian aggression.
More than 700 people gathered Feb. 15 at Yokota Air Base, Japan, for a memorial service and retreat ceremony honoring the crew of an Air Force CV-22B Osprey that crashed nearly three months ago in southern Japan, killing all aboard.