Air Force Association

Senators Endorse Space Force Reserve But Question Guard

June 11, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen
Senators endorsed the creation of a reserve component for the Space Force in new legislation but want more evidence that a Space National Guard is necessary as well. The Senate Armed Services Committee this week approved its version of the fiscal 2021 defense policy bill ...

Next-Gen Air Dominance Acquisition Plan Coming Soon

June 9, 2020 | By John A. Tirpak
The Next-Generation Air Dominance program's acquisition strategy will be finished this summer, service acquisition chief Will Roper reported June 9 at a Mitchell Institute Aerospace Nation streaming event. He's assigned a team to assess whether the "Digital Century Series" model for the aircraft will cost ...

Air Force to Test Fighter Drone Against Human Pilot

June 4, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen
Air Force researchers are designing an autonomous aircraft that can take down a manned plane in air-to-air combat, with the goal of pitting the two against each other in July 2021. Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, head of the Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, said the ...

Why the U.S. Is Driving Allies to Buy Chinese UAVs

June 3, 2020 | By Tobias Naegele
U.S. unmanned aerial vehicles are the best in the world, but allied nations are barred from acquiring those systems under a 1987 voluntary non-proliferation agreement that classifies them as equivalent to nuclear weapons. Now a new report from the Mitchell Institute of Aerospace Studies argues ...