Lawmakers want to quash the prospect of buying new armed overwatch planes for special operations troops or the Air Force in the next few years, as part of the final draft of the 2021 defense policy bill released this month. They seek to block SOCOM ...
House appropriators are planning to offer the Pentagon $694.6 billion for operations, personnel, and procurement, plus another $10.5 billion for military construction, in fiscal 2021. The Defense Department funding proposal is $1.3 billion higher than DOD received in fiscal 2020, but nearly $4 billion lower ...
Air Force officials are still looking to perfect directed-energy weapons to use against the low-tech threat of small drones before scaling up lasers and microwaves to take out cruise missiles. The Air Force’s high-power microwave weapon known as the Tactical High-Power Microwave Operational Responder, or ...
Lt. Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, currently the director of the Joint Staff, was nominated July 1 to take over as the next commander of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command. If confirmed, VanHerck will receive his fourth star and take over for ...
Don’t expect much investment in new fleets of special-operations aircraft as the Pentagon braces for a budget crunch, the head of Air Force Special Operations Command said May 13. “We acknowledge that we are at a strategic inflection point,” Lt. Gen. Jim Slife said during ...
Multiple companies who faced off in the Air Force’s light attack experiment will again compete for a similar contract from U.S. Special Operations Command. Textron Aviation, Air Tractor, and Leidos are offering aircraft for a three-phase armed overwatch competition that ends with live-fly demonstrations in ...
Air Force Special Operations Command is ordering a third A-29 Super Tucano to train foreign troops, aircraft manufacturer Sierra Nevada Corp. said May 11. The A-29 is one of two light attack platforms the Air Force bought for limited use after declining to turn the ...