Douglas A. Birkey

China, Russia, Iran and others pose a dire threat to our nation. Yet the fiscal 2025 budget submitted to Congress is woefully inadequate to confront those challenges—especially for the Department of the Air Force, writes Douglas A. Birkey

“The year 2024 will stand as a transformative year for modernizing the U.S. Air Force’s fighter force. Bottom line: the service needs to reset fast. That is why it was welcome news when Lockheed Martin recently announced the Tech Refresh 3/Block 4 variant of its ...

Military missions in the air, on land, and at sea demand robust, timely weather information. On-orbit space-based environmental monitoring (SBEM) systems are a critical source of this data, but years of underfunding, delayed, curtailed, and canceled modernization programs have left the SBEM enterprise in a ...

Beginning with the fiscal 2024 budget, every dollar for F-35 will fund TR-3-equipped Block 4 jets. The need for those jets could hardly be greater.

The post-World War II drawdown left the Air Force ill-prepared for conflict. The parallels with today are enlightening.

Lessons from the Battle of Britain loom large in how USAF constructs the Advanced Battle Management System.

Air Force Global Strike Command boss Gen. Timothy M. Ray talks about the high demand for USAF bombers and the value bomber task force missions bring to the nation.

Priorities for the Pentagon’s new leadership must begin with aerospace power.

Conventional measures mask the true cost of operations—cost-per-effect does not.

The case for a new version of the F-22, reborn with the brains of the F-35.

DOD must harness innovation when developing new operational conceptions, but it also needs to ensure that real-world pragmatic perspectives are driving the decision-making process, according to experts at the West Coast Aerospace Forum last week.

The threats to US national security are greater than they've been in decades, and the US can no longer afford to push off mounting modernization costs, said two members of the National Defense Strategy Commission at the West Coast Aerospace Forum.

Space is without a doubt a contested domain, and the US military and the intelligence community are teaming up to face the challenge.

Commanders must delegate to their staffs and provide assistance when required if they are to be successful, said Space and Missile Systems Center commander Lt. Gen. John Thompson, during a recent West Coast Aerospace Forum in California.

New entrants to the defense industry recently spoke of the challenges involved with launching a new venture in a world where contract stability is lacking.