New approaches to acquisition, faster testing, and lessons from combat are shrinking the Air Force’s timelines for fielding low-cost munitions from years to months, a top Air Force weapons official told the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 24.
Munitions
B-2 bombers dropped precision-guided bombs on Iranian targets this week, demonstrating the flexibility and utility of U.S. Air Force long-range strike capabilities. But not all weapons can be delivered by bombers, a fact Air Force leaders want to overcome as they develop next-generation aircraft and ...
Defense specialists’ stock prices jumped March 2, the first day of trading since the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran, led by the makers of munitions, high-tech defense specialists, and major prime contractors.
Air Force leaders hail recent strike missions like Midnight Hammer as a shining example of operational readiness, but that success also highlights the challenges ahead should USAF need to mount an extended long-range strike campaign.
When lawmakers and outside experts turn their attention to how the U.S. military can use of artificial intelligence, they tend to focus on weapons systems—the most consequential and risk-laden use cases—and on generative AI. But behind the scenes, the Air Force is already using machine ...
In a pair of major contracts announced July 31, the Pentagon awarded a combined $7.8 billion for new missiles, including JASSM and AMRAAM.
Thanks to reconciliation, the fiscal 2026 Air Force budget would get a surge of munitions procurement, but it's not yet clear if the production increase will be sustained. The Air Force revealed the secret AIM-260 air-to-air missile's funding for the first time.
After years of serving as the bill-payer for other Pentagon priorities, munitions stockpiles are poised to get a major boost from the $150 billion reconciliation package unveiled by lawmakers in Congress this week, along with the defense industrial base to...
Sustained Munitions Production and Lower-Cost Designs By John A. Tirpak Munitions have long been a bill-payer in the Air Force budget—staples of warfare that, in peacetime, can be neglected or shortchanged to pay for more pressing needs—but after more than...
Lockheed Martin is offering a low-cost air vehicle it calls a flying "truck" that could be a cruise missile or sensor platform, intended to be the "low end" complement to the high-end JASSM/LRASM stealth cruise missiles, and help the Air Force achieve "affordable mass" in ...
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, on the verge of leaving the Pentagon, said he would accelerate production of the B-21 bomber if there was money to do so. But even so, it couldn’t happen right away, he said in an interview with Air & Space ...
The Air Force is buying more than 1,500 GBU-53/B StormBreaker Small Diameter Bomb IIs for itself, the Navy, and FMS customers.