The Air Force wants to spend $1.3 billion to finish designing two competitive engines to power the Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter, budget documents show. They say the designs are well along, and the timing of the request indicates production could begin by 2028.
NGAD
Three F-16 fighters landed at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., on April 1. Soon enough, they'll be modified and flying again to test autonomous technologies key to Collaborative Combat Aircraft and other key programs, the Air Force said April 2.
WORLD: Budget: Air Force Gets More; Space Force Gets Cut; Shrinking Aircraft Inventory.
William LaPlante said there’s been “significant improvement” in the program over the last decade, and program leaders can now “focus on the future of the F-35, instead of the past.”
The Air Force is budgeting $28.6 billion over the next five years to develop its next frontline fighter and an armada of autonomous escorts to go with it, according to just-released budget documents. Activities planned for 2025 include building and flying prototypes.
The Mitchell Institute conducted a wargame and associated studies to assess how a family of uncrewed Collaborative Combat Aircraft could increase the lethality, survivability, and capacity of the Air Force’s air superiority forces for operations in highly contested environments.
The CCA is envisioned as an uncrewed, relatively low-observable aircraft that can escort or coordinate with crewed aircraft, performing missions such as electronic warfare, defense suppression, as a communications node or as a flying extra magazine of weapons.
Lawmakers want very tight oversight of the Next Generation Air Dominance fighters and Collaborative Combat Aircraft drones, demanding detailed six-month updates on their progress across a myriad of component categories, according to the 2024 compromise National Defense Authorization Act.
There was a secret, multi-agency X-plane program to explore future fighters that paved the way for the Next-Generation Air Dominance program, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall revealed at the POLITICO Defense Summit on Nov. 14.
CCA's take shape; Modernizing the Battle Network; Scheduling the new nukes; CMSSF Towberman bids farewell.
Adaptive technology is the next step in fighter propulsion. It is our assurance of long-term air dominance and propulsion superiority.
The U.S. Air Force is all-in on the Joint Simulation Environment (JSE) to revolutionize the way warfighters train for the future fight. JSE—and HII’s Mission Technologies division, a contributor to the evolution of JSE—will be a central component in the...
