As the Pentagon continues to aggressively expand its development of hypersonic weapons, officials will need to consider the “range of capabilities” the Defense Department actually needs, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III told a Congressional panel.
A recent test flight of the Lockheed Martin HAWC air-breathing hypersonic missile set a record for scramjet propulsion at hypersonic speeds, achieving about 327 seconds of combustion, versus 200 seconds in a 2010 test of the Boeing X-51 Waverider.
The Department of the Air Force is requesting $234.1 billion in its 2023 budget request, of which $40.1 billion is "pass-through funds," or money the services will never see, while $169.5 billion is for USAF and $24.5 billion is for the Space Force. The budget ...
The Space Force’s second-in-command told Air Force Academy cadets attending a leadership conference that the U.S. will need machines to make decisions that kill—and that confronting the inherent ethical dilemmas “can’t wait.” The weapons' inevitability comes down to “the speed of war—how quickly things are ...
The high cost of hypersonic missiles will likely drive the Air Force to build only small inventories of them, relying more heavily on other types of munitions such as lower-speed cruise missiles, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said Feb. 15. “Hypersonics are not going to ...
One day after the Space Force’s second in command warned that the U.S. is “not as advanced as the Chinese or the Russians in terms of hypersonic programs,” a media report indicated that China’s likely test of a nuclear-capable hypersonic weapon this summer included an added ...
The first battle-ready U.S. hypersonic weapon will be fielded within a year or two by the Army, and the Navy is not far behind, according to the Department of Defense official overseeing research into the emerging and disruptive technology. The Army’s Long Range Hypersonic Weapon ...
Lockheed Martin has opened a new factory in Alabama for production of hypersonic missiles for the Air Force, Army, and Navy. The plant will build the AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon, but that missile has yet to make a successful test flight. Getting the missile ...
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said he's "unsatisfied" with the pace of progress in Air Force hypersonics programs and even "the degree to which we’ve figured out what we need from hypersonics." Speaking to reporters at AFA's Air, Space & Cyber Conference, he said he's ...
The Air Force should pause its major recapitalization of its intercontinental ballistic missile fleet—a move top military officials strongly oppose—as budgets tighten and other nuclear modernization efforts proceed, a key lawmaker said May 17. Rep. John Garamendi (D-California), the chairman of the House Armed Services ...
President Joe Biden will request $715 billion for the Pentagon in his first budget request in office, about a $10 billion increase from the 2021 enacted budget but below the sustained growth military officials have asked for. Notably, Biden’s budget...
Read about forward base defense, U.S. progress on hypersonic weapons, building coalitions between spacefaring nations, the heroism of Capt. Stephen Phillis, a one-on-one interview with Air National Guard director Gen. Michael A. Loh, and more in the April issue of Air Force Magazine.