Sustained Munitions Production and Lower-Cost Designs By John A. Tirpak Munitions have long been a bill-payer in the Air Force budget—staples of warfare that, in peacetime, can be neglected or shortchanged to pay for more pressing needs—but after more than...
AGM-158
Why retiring the B-1 too soon could undermine U.S. security. The U.S. Air Force plans to start retiring the B-1 Lancer fleet to make room for the new, sixth-generation B-21 Raider. But the Air Force is planning to do that...
Lockheed Martin has opened a second production line to make two of the Pentagon’s most in-demand weapons: the LRASM anti-ship cruise missile and the JASSM-ER air-to-surface variant. Wargames have shown the utility of the missiles in countering a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The problem is that ...
Fifth AF without F-15s; Collaborative Combat Aircraft; Layered missile defense in Guam.
The Air Force is boosting its munitions buy in fiscal 2023, marking another modest step in the migration away from direct-attack munitions with priority going to standoff capability, such as the AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range series and its variant, the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile.
The Air Force's fiscal 2022 budget request for munitions cuts deeply into production of staples like the Joint Direct Attack Munition bomb and Hellfire missile. The service, however, promises its stockpiles are adequate and that it needs to invest in new munitions that are better ...
The 85th Test and Evaluation Squadron at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, loaded five AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles onto an F-15E, more than doubling the Strike Eagle's normal JASSM load. The test comes about two months after the wing demonstrated that the Strike Eagle ...
A B-1B bomber on Dec. 4 released a JASSM stealth missile from its Sniper targeting pod pylon. The demonstration follows a captive-carry dress rehearsal in November, and paves the way for the B-1 to carry a variety of munitions, but especially hypersonic missiles, on external ...
The Wild Weasels at Misawa Air Base, Japan, showed off their advanced armament in the base’s first joint, bilateral elephant walk on June 22. Twelve F-16CMs from the base lined up with 12 Japanese F-35As, two U.S. Navy E/A-18G Growlers, a Navy C-12, two U.S. ...
