Operational Shake-Up: Retired Lt. Gen. Robert Elder said officials in Pacific Air Forces are “very interested” in looking at the “Effective Warfighting in a Contest Enviornment” study, slated for completion in February, as they try to figure out how to continue using remotely piloted aircraft in contested airspace. Speaking at AFA’s Air & Space Conference in National Harbor, Md., Sept. 18, Elder said the Air Force needs “to see if there is a different way to operate RPAs that will allow us to effectively operate even though the environment is degraded.” He said he expects the study to “shake up the way we look at things from an operational level,” specifically in how the Air Force conducts command and control and operates its air operations centers.
Lockheed Martin projects more than a billion dollars of losses on a classified program, but company officials said April 23 they are confident it will turn profitable by 2028 and become a "franchise" system in the U.S. military.