The $4.26 billion Small Business Innovation Research contracting program widely used by the Air Force went into hibernation as the government shut down Oct. 1, but unless lawmakers strike a deal on reforms, the program could reach an abrupt end.
AFWERX
Fresh off its biggest test yet of an autonomous cargo plane, the Air Force is going bolder: deploying and operating another such aircraft for an entire year.
Long-Range Drones Target Battlefield Delivery By Greg Hadley A new startup has a contract with the Air Force’s innovation arm and a prototype to test its new concept: a network of “flying pickup truck” drones to solve the problem of...
The Osprey MK III is testing out new navigation software to keep troops on track even when adversaries jam or spoof GPS satellite signals.
Commerce Cuts Space Traffic Management Program By Shaun Waterman The first Trump administration moved to relieve the Space Force of its burden to monitor and warn civilian space operators about potential space traffic hazards. But now, just as the Commerce...
The Space Force is playing midwife to a new ecosystem of commercial satellite constellations providing alternatives to the service’s own Global Positioning Service from much closer to the Earth, making their signals more accurate and harder to jam.
Hickham Air Force Base in Hawaii is trialing novel energy technology to provide electrical power and hydrogen fuel in the kind of isolated and austere outposts the Air Force will need in the Pacific theater for its new Agile Combat Employment way of warfare.
AFWERX, the Air Force’s technology incubator, is funding the development of an AI-powered tool for identifying and tracking objects in low-Earth orbit, even as they maneuver and try to cloak themselves.
A prototype aircraft tug being tested out at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M. could save MQ-9 Reaper maintainers time and money and cut down on safety risks on the flightline.
The Defense Innovation Board adopted a series of new recommendations and praised the Air Force for its big bets on emerging technology in recent years that seem primed to help new entrants to the defense market bridge the so-called valley of death between initial investment ...
An Air Force F-16 pilot designed a collapsible ladder that weighs just six pounds and folds into the unused cockpit map case.
NATO has taken a page from the Air Force’s innovation playbook, setting up a technology accelerator and a venture fund to nurture and financially support small companies working on cutting edge technology development in critical fields.
