An ambitious U.S. military program to explore using rockets to deliver cargo around the globe took another step forward with an announcement of an experimental mission planned for 2026.
vanguard programs
The Defense Innovation Board adopted a series of new recommendations and praised the Air Force for its big bets on emerging technology in recent years that seem primed to help new entrants to the defense market bridge the so-called valley of death between initial investment ...
Breaking weapons up into modular segments for ease of upgrade could also improve defense industrial surge capacity, said the outgoing head of Air Force Materiel Command Gen. Arnold W. Bunch Jr. Modularity could also help address the issue of intellectual property while keeping more companies ...
Three of the Air Force’s four Vanguard programs—high-profile ventures chosen for extra investment and accelerated development—are slated to become programs of record by the end of 2023, the deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for science, technology, and engineering told Congress. The statement seemingly ...
AFRL’s realignment is finally complete. Andrew Williams, an 18-year veteran of AFRL’s Space Vehicles Directorate, will be the first full-time permanent deputy technology executive officer (D-TEO) for space science and technology.
Reports of production troubles on the SpaceX rocket that could contend for military cargo deliveries happened to coincide with a different company’s concept receiving an early nod—one that might not require a rocket at all.
The Air Force Research Laboratory decided last year it would not separate out its space research in light of the creation of the Space Force but would instead remain one lab serving two services. The lab’s new Space Force customers say that, so far, they ...
Robots will join the Combat Air Forces within the next decade, flying alongside manned airplanes, bearing extra munitions, assisting with surveillance and jamming, and even making kamikaze attacks to defend their wingmen. These Low-Cost Attritable Aircraft Systems (LCAAS), in development since 2015, seek to affordably ...
The Space Force’s hub for fostering innovation and partnerships with startups and academia has selected two dozen teams to participate in its latest challenge with the hope of developing technologies to solve several key problems in space—including one of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Vanguard ...
There’s a new X-plane in the Air Force’s fleet. The Air Force Test Pilot School in June redesignated the NF-16D Variable In-flight Simulator Aircraft as the X-62A, allowing the aircraft to be used for testing the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Skyborg program. The aircraft, originally ...
The Golden Horde Vanguard program yielded good results but will not advance into a program of record just yet, Air Force Materiel Command boss Gen. Arnold W. Bunch Jr. told reporters. “We haven’t finalized” what will be done with the technology, he said. The program ...
The Air Force wants to soon be able to deliver cargo from space, and it is putting real money behind the effort. The Department of the Air Force announced June 4 that the Rocket Cargo effort is the department’s fourth Vanguard program, joining the Skyborg ...
