A General Atomics official said the company is surprised by the Air Force’s plan to stop buying new MQ-9 Reapers in fiscal 2020, after expecting to gradually wind down the production line. Chris Pehrson, General Atomics' vice president of strategic development, told Air Force Magazine ...
Russia
U.S. Strategic Command simulated the possibility of nuclear conflict in Europe for Defense Secretary Mark Esper during a visit this week to Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. The exercise is part of the Pentagon’s routine slate of wargames and other events that it uses to ...
Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett visited Airmen at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, Feb. 15 amid continuing tensions over Turkey's ouster from the F-35 program and a December threat by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to shutter the base over political censure from Washington. While her visit ...
An independent review team investigating the first in-space test of Boeing’s Starliner astronaut capsule should have its review wrapped up by the end of February. Boeing and NASA are conducting the review jointly. They already plan to recheck all 1 million lines of Starliner’s software ...
The new Air Force budget responds to the arrival of peer militaries on the world scene, the service's deputy chief of staff for operations said Feb. 12. The nation must shake off notions about Air Force capabilities that are 30 years old and no longer ...
The service must continue to evolve its thinking on command and control in order to effectively modernize and prepare for great power conflict, two leading Air Force experts said Feb. 7. Increased investments in Joint All-Domain Command and Control is “gutsy” because it isn’t as ...
Deployment of the Soviet SS-20 sent tremors through western Europe.
The End of Nuclear “Kick the Can”
After years of declining investment, NATO members’ spending on defense is rebounding. But frictions persist.
The Air Force isn’t well-structured to carry out the National Defense Strategy, and in order to deter a major war, it must add more and stealthier aircraft, expand its use of unmanned systems, accelerate the development of new technology, and learn to operate from more ...
The Pentagon’s review of its force structure in Africa, and the likely reduction of deployed personnel, is already meeting harsh pushback on Capitol Hill, even before the review is completed. Defense Secretary Mark Esper has ordered a “zero-based” review of US forces deployed globally, with ...
The Air Force is creating a Navigational Warfare Laboratory to study how military aircraft could still get around if an adversary attacks their GPS signal or other positioning, navigation, and timing systems. Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, will host the lab, which is slated to be up ...