The Defense Department is too conservative in its acquisitions strategy, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics Frank Kendall told House legislators. “I think we’re not taking enough risk,” said Kendall during a Jan. 28 House Armed Services Committee hearing on improving DOD’s ability to respond to the pace of technological change. In new programs, Kendall said, “we’re not going to be able to reduce every risk to zero, we’ve got to be willing to put our programs out there” and assume small margins of risk, if the US is going to be No. 1 in the world in both technology and warfighting capabilities.
A U.S. Air Force MQ-9 suffered an engine failure flying over Africa in May 2023, forcing the drone’s pilot to down it in the ocean where it was not recovered, according to a new Air Force report. The cost of the mishap was more than $21 million.