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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
In a multi-faceted test, six bombs that were dropped from two F-16s over White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, set up their own communications network, received new targets in-flight, and struck the targets collaboratively in a synchronized fashion, the Air Force Research Laboratory announced. The ...
The Air Force’s “Golden Horde” weapon swarming project overcame its earlier technical difficulties in a second flight test last month, the service said March 5. The Feb. 19 event featured four Small Diameter Bombs equipped with systems that let them work as a team, two ...
A group of networked bombs failed to hit the right target in the Air Force’s first flight test of its nascent weapon-swarming technology last month, posing a new obstacle as the service tries to speed the concept to the battlefield. On Dec. 15, the Air ...
The Air Force’s science advisers say the service needs to make its approach to cutting-edge “Vanguard” programs more concrete and repeatable—and to ditch them when things don’t work out. USAF leaders asked the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board to grade how the Vanguard concept is ...