The Pentagon’s $715 billion budget request aims to increase research and development, with a key focus on what is needed in the Indo-Pacific, and it will chop old aircraft to do it. The Biden administration’s first budget request, released May 28, includes the biggest total ...
Air Education and Training Command's fixed-wing trainer aircraft saw a 17 percent improvement in their mission capable rates in fiscal 2020 over the previous year, pushed by investments in facilities, proactive parts replacement, and maintenance reorganzation, the command reported.
The defense budget coming out May 28 will contain few big surprises. Plans to retire some older planes have already been reported, and the longer-range plans typically surfacing at budget time—known as the Future Years Defense Plan, or FYDP—are still being debated. But inklings of ...
China's meteoric rise in military capability—and the urge to do something to contain it—is the chief reason Frank Kendall, the Biden administration's pick to be Air Force Secretary, agreed to return to Pentagon work, he said in his Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing. Kendall ...
The Air Force's fighter fleet generally saw an uptick in mission capable rates in fiscal 2020. The most dramatic improvement was the F-35's. Its rate jumped from 61.6 percent in fiscal 2019 to just over 76 percent in fiscal 2020. The F-15D's and E's MC ...
The Air Force is ready to start buying some of the technology that will make up the Advanced Battle Management System, moving the program from theory to development, according to a May 21 release. First up will be new communications “pods” for the KC-46 Pegasus ...
The F-15EX achieved mixed results in its first major force wargame—Northern Edge 2021—but that was the idea, a member of the type's combined test team reported. The F-15EX showed that it can do the mission of the F-15C, and then some, but data has yet ...
In the Pentagon’s vision, Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) will connect sensor data, powerful computer processing, and artificial intelligence algorithms through a lightning-fast, resilient network. That capability will give U.S. forces an edge so decisive it could deter aggressors from even contemplating future conflicts. ...
The Air Force wants to scale back buys of the F-35 over the next five years, hoping to get sustainment costs down and to wait for the more capable Block 4 version, according to talking points prepared for Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown ...
The Air Force is preparing to unveil a 30-year fighter force design that calls for two new fighters—one for high-end fights and one for less demanding missions—a new way of providing close air support, and the retirement of the F-22 starting in about 2030, a ...
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. wants to neck down the Air Force's fighter inventory from seven fleets to four, and the F-22 is not on his short list. The extant seven-fleet mix of fighters will need to be reduced to ...
The F-35 has problems, but its operational success and critical role in future conflicts outweigh them, said Rep. Anthony Brown during the McAleese FY2022 Defense Programs Conference on May 12. He urged that the services' 2022 F-35 request—as well as any congressional adds—be supported by ...
