The Air Force plans a high/low mix of rocket-boosted and air-breathing hypersonic missiles to give adversaries a troublesome and expensive defense problem, service acquisition executive Will Roper said May 14. While the ARRW missile is on track for operational service at the end of fiscal ...
Air Force technology
A new innovation organization has quietly joined the military’s WERX universe. ARCWERX—an innovation organization specifically created for the Air Force's reserve component—looks to leverage the proverbial superpowers hidden within Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve ranks, as well as strategic partnerships, to mold a ...
Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Australia-based CEA Technologies are in the running to build a new ground-based radar as the Air Force overhauls its Three-Dimensional Expeditionary Long-Range Radar effort. The Air Force announced May 11 that each company received $500,000 to demonstrate their ready-made radars ...
The X-37B spaceplane will embark on its sixth mission from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on May 16, Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett said. The secretive, unmanned orbital test vehicle, which will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, is notching new ...
The Air Force on April 27 kicked off Agility Prime, a new effort to help industry create a “flying car” for both commercial and military use. “There is a path for the military market to accelerate domestic use,” said Will Roper, the Air Force’s assistant ...
The Pentagon has shifted its top priority from hypersonics to microelectronics, because the latter technology is an element of almost all weapon systems, and the U.S. is "in danger" of losing superiority in this area, said Mark Lewis, the head of defense research and engineering ...
Air Force acquisition boss Will Roper is seeking more congressional help for the defense industrial base as companies find their new business rhythm in the coronavirus era. “We’re transitioning into the new steady state. The number of new discoveries is going down and that’s good,” ...
The Air Force will kick off its effort to encourage the development of flying cars with a virtual launch event featuring product presentations and government briefings from April 27 to May 1. Known as “Agility Prime,” the initiative aims to support private companies that are ...
Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition Will Roper recently announced the creation of AFVentures, which will serve as an “umbrella organization for the Air Force’s efforts to work with small businesses to fund critical technologies for the warfighter,” according to a release. During ...
Air Force acquisition chief Will Roper said March 11 the Air Force is still working on promising research despite a largely stagnant science and technology budget request for fiscal 2021 that is worrying some lawmakers. As the U.S. looks to develop advanced military systems like ...
A touted $30 billion realignment of the Air Force's budget, with some wholesale retirements of major systems, did not materialize in the spending documents released Feb. 10. Instead, the Air Force is reducing its operational fleet to pay for technology upgrades emphasizing connectivity, agile logistics, ...
When the Air Force Research Laboratory’s experimentation office was chartered in 2016, the idea of ‘try before you buy’ hadn’t picked up much speed. Nearly four years later, the office is using momentum and top cover from leadership to institutionalize experiments as regular practice in ...