While the Pentagon has signaled its intent to scale technology, field new systems faster, and work more with nontraditional vendors, a new report identifies persistent manufacturing capacity, resourcing, workforce, and modernization challenges that could hinder its ability to deliver on those goals.
innovation
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week released strategies meant to focus the Pentagon’s “alphabet soup” of innovation organizations and proliferate artificial intelligence—moves that experts say could provide the structure needed to make the military’s efforts to integrate and field new technology more effective.
The Pentagon needs a Digital Command and a Digital Warfare Corps, along with other changes, to take advantage of critical new technologies, according to a think tank founded by former Google CEO and Chairman Eric Schmidt.
A prototype aircraft tug being tested out at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M. could save MQ-9 Reaper maintainers time and money and cut down on safety risks on the flightline.
A new paper from the Hudson Institute argues that the Pentagon should dump the entire Joint Capabilities and Integration Development system, saying it has irretrievably failed and does more harm than good. In its place, the authors suggest a more service-oriented, bottom-up system that sets ...
New covers developed by Air Force Global Strike Command should save time and money by keeping B-52 bomber engines from icing even in Arctic environments.
Airmen at McConnell Air Force Base, Kan. are working on a device that will start up the KC-46 refueling tanker faster, which would cut down the time it takes for crews to take off and gas up aircraft in need.
An Air Force F-16 pilot designed a collapsible ladder that weighs just six pounds and folds into the unused cockpit map case.
NATO has taken a page from the Air Force’s innovation playbook, setting up a technology accelerator and a venture fund to nurture and financially support small companies working on cutting edge technology development in critical fields.
A B-52 maintainer at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., designed a new tool that shaves hours off the phase inspection process, delighting his fellow knuckle busters.
The Air Force has no shortage of complex problems. And from countering small drones to deterring China on a tight budget, solving these problems can require more than just good ideas: it also means getting those ideas out of the ‘silos’ that can form across ...