SpaceX will carry data-transport and missile-tracking satellites to orbit for the Space Development Agency, the Pentagon said Dec. 31. SpaceX won a $150.5 million contract for two launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., starting in September 2022. The entire constellation of up to 28 ...
The Pentagon has formally created a group of defense companies that can get broader access to classified programs, hoping that more insight will make contractors more efficient and cost-conscious. In a Dec. 15 memo to the defense industrial base, Pentagon acquisition boss Ellen M. Lord ...
Air Force MQ-9s have a new permanent home in Romania. U.S. Air Forces in Europe announced Jan. 4 that Reapers and about 90 Airmen are now based at Romanian Air Force Base 71 at Campia Turzii. The surveillance and attack drones are assigned to the ...
The nonprofit Blue Star Families on Dec. 16 debuted a million-dollar Racial Equity Initiative to diversify the military- and veteran-service organization communities and ensure that military families of color feel connected, included, and as though they belong.
The Air Force's in-house software factories have become hacking targets because they are accelerating the service's fielding of new capabilities, and must be defended as the "crown jewels" they are. The Pentagon needs to apply "Zero-Trust" technology in its data systems, not only keeping hackers ...
The Air Force Weapons School has recognized Capt. Woodruff “Thunder” Johnson, an F-15E Weapons Officer assigned to the 494th Fighter Squadron at RAF Lakenheath, U.K., with its 2020 Robbie Risner Award. The annual award—whose namesake, Brig. Gen. James Robinson “Robbie” Risner, was the first living ...
Space Force members will be known as “Guardians” from now on, Vice President Michael R. Pence announced Dec. 18. “Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Guardians will be defending our nation for generations to come,” he said at a Dec. 18 White House ceremony celebrating the ...
The Air Force’s science advisers say the service needs to make its approach to cutting-edge “Vanguard” programs more concrete and repeatable—and to ditch them when things don’t work out. USAF leaders asked the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board to grade how the Vanguard concept is ...
Col. Andrew J. Campbell, commander of the 374th Airlift Wing, declared a public health emergency at Yokota Air Base, Japan, on Dec. 16, and rolled out an extensive set of mandatory COVID-19 mitigation measures for U.S. and host-nation personnel—including mandatory contact-tracing for U.S. troops, DOD ...
The Air Force will flight test the U.S. military’s first hypersonic missile this month, Air Force acquisition boss Will Roper said Dec. 14 at the inaugural Doolittle Leadership Center Forum. Speaking on the theme of “From Acquisition to Lethality,” Roper also described progress on the ...
As Air Force Materiel Command makes changes to speed up how it buys, tests, and sustains weapon systems, the command is also overhauling its personnel practices to ensure its Airmen face fewer career hurdles and can succeed, the command’s boss said. AFMC is overhauling its ...
The new boss of the Space Force’s operations branch on Dec. 14 offered a peek into how the organization is working with other parts of the service as they mature. Space Operations Command boss Lt. Gen. Stephen N. Whiting indicated the ops, training, and acquisition ...