U.S. munitions have been expended at a high rate during Operation Epic Fury against Iran, prompting concerns that the Pentagon is eating into weapons stockpiles it needs to deter threats around the world. Yet the newly released $1.5 trillion defense budget request was developed before ...
Munitions
The Air Force’s fiscal 2027 budget request would invest $15 billion in its munitions portfolio, with $10.8 billion earmarked for weapons purchases and another $4.3 billion for research, development, test, and evaluation of new arms.
The Air Force recently tested the Rusty Dagger, a low-cost cruise missile, with the F-16, one of several industry offerings in the Pentagon's larger effort to field affordable weapons.
The Pentagon's research labs are ramping up their search for munitions that can be mass-produced—an effort likely to be buoyed by billions of dollars in the department's new fiscal 2027 budget request and tens of billions in the upcoming years. While the topline information shared ...
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.
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...