In a pair of major contracts announced July 31, the Pentagon awarded a combined $7.8 billion for new missiles, including JASSM and AMRAAM.
AMRAAM
After years of serving as the bill-payer for other Pentagon priorities, munitions stockpiles are poised to get a major boost from the $150 billion reconciliation package unveiled by lawmakers in Congress this week, along with the defense industrial base to...
Space and Missile Defense Leaders Ponder Golden Dome By Unshin Lee Harpley Within a week of his inauguration, President Donald Trump directed the Pentagon to outline a comprehensive air and missile defense strategy with a focus on advanced space-based interceptors....
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...
The U.S. is pushing to expand the production of key munitions for the Ukrainian military, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer said. “From an industrial base perspective, it’s largely been a battle of attrition,” William A. LaPlante, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, told ...
Ukraine Unveils Its First F-16 Fighters By Chris Gordon Ukraine’s first F-16s were unveiled by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Aug. 4, ending a lengthy wait for the Western fighters Kyiv says it needs to defend its airspace from Russia....
Front-line air bases are like any other weapon system: They are only effective if they can function under enemy fire. Air bases at forward locations in the Indo-Pacific, Europe, or other theaters must be able to fend off complex integrated air and missile strikes, rapidly ...
The U.S. and Japan announced plans to boost missile system co-production, including Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAMs) and Patriot PAC-3, to bolster deterrence and address “destabilizing behavior" in the region in July 28. The announcement follows Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Secretary ...
A non-exhaustive list of acronyms and abbreviations found in the 2024 Almanac.
Ukraine will receive AIM-120 AMRAAM advanced air-to-air missiles from the U.S. that could be used on its aircraft, Ukrainian officials told Air & Space Forces Magazine.
Ukraine won’t get a basic F-16 capability until at least 2024, and developing proficiency with that aircraft “could be four or five years down the road,” Gen. James B. Hecker, commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe and Air Forces-Africa, said Aug. 18. Hecker also downplayed ...
A detailed guide to the aircraft, aerial target systems, weapons systems, and satellite systems in USAF and USSF inventory.
