As the Pentagon looks to deter China in the coming years, officials need to find ways to make new technologies and existing systems work together to build capacity, said former Defense Department policy chief Michèle Flournoy. In particular, Flournoy—a defense analyst who served as undersecretary ...
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has backed off the idea of an unmanned bomber to pair with the B-21 Raider—but there could still be value in building low-cost, less sophisticated drones to accompany the B-21. That was the key takeaway from a recent three-day workshop ...
As the Air Force moves forward with plans to team manned and unmanned systems in the future, the service might be best served by pursuing platforms that can function on their own as uncrewed aircraft—but are still capable of working as “loyal wingmen” to manned ...
Teams of autonomous vehicles collaborating with a crewed airplane, in which each aircraft in the formation performs a unique mission on its own, is far more effective than the so-called “loyal wingman” approach, in which a piloted aircraft pairs with just one similarly-equipped, autonomous multimission ...
The Department of the Air Force’s annual Spark Tank competition takes place March 4, as six teams will take to the stage at the AFA Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla. Each team will pitch the most senior leaders in the Air and Space Forces on ...
Boeing's losses on the KC-46 tanker now add up to over $5.4 billion, as the company took an additional charge on the program of $406 million in the last quarter of 2021. The company chalked up the loss to continued resolution of the Remote Viewing ...
There’s a new X-plane in the Air Force’s fleet. The Air Force Test Pilot School in June redesignated the NF-16D Variable In-flight Simulator Aircraft as the X-62A, allowing the aircraft to be used for testing the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Skyborg program. The aircraft, originally ...
The Skyborg software and hardware suite allowing unmanned aircraft to team with crewed ones flew for the first time April 29, the Air Force said, launching a series of experiments meant to prove the safety and effectiveness of the approach.
Low-cost, attritable aircraft will likely reshape the fleet design outlined in “The Air Force We Need” white paper of 2018, panelists said during an Oct. 1 event hosted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. The technology's rapid advance is causing service force designers to ...
Boeing, General Atomics, Kratos, and Northrop Grumman received indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts that allow them to compete for Skyborg Vanguard Program delivery orders, the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center announced on July 23. Skyborg is an affordable unmanned system that will partner with ...
The Air Force will shortly launch its effort to buy Skyborg drone prototypes, according to the official running the unmanned wingman program. The service will begin soliciting aircraft this month and plans to award contracts to the winning designs by the end of the summer, ...
Air Combat Command is shifting from a "fighter roadmap" to a "capabilities" roadmap that will capture many of the things fighters do today, but likely with new types of unmanned systems and "attritable" aircraft, Gen. Mike Holmes told reporters Feb. 27. The idea of a ...