Following its May 4 launch, the Air Force's second Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite is functioning as expected, and its liquid apogee engine -- the primary motor used to lift the satellite into orbit -- has not exhibited any of the failures that AEHF-1 suffered in 2010.
1011 words
Hawker Beechcraft and Sierra Nevada are publicly slugging it out over a revised request for proposals that would net the winning contractor a $355 million opportunity to provide 20 light air support aircraft to Afghanistan, with both companies citing safety concerns in the RFP.
1439 words
House lawmakers this week advanced legislation requiring the
Air Force's next-generation bomber to be nuclear-certified at the time it is
declared operationally capable despite the service's assertions that imposing
that requirement unnecessarily strains the test community and doesn't match
today's threat environment.596 words
The Air Force will not take into account "fully burdened"
fuel costs as part of its competition for the Combat Rescue Helicopter, arguing
that the metric -- which some experts say should be used in weapon system
acquisitions to evaluate the total cost of operating a new capability -- is too
complicated to calculate.739 words
The Air Force
is getting a new top military officer. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced
during a Pentagon briefing Thursday that President Barack Obama has nominated
Air Force Gen. Mark Welsh to succeed Gen. Norton Schwartz as the service's next
chief of staff when Schwartz retires this summer. According to his official
biography, Welsh is serving as head of U.S. Air Forces in Europe, commander of
NATO Allied Air Component Command and director of the Joint Air Power
Competency Center at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.89 words
The F-35 program believes it has identified fixes for three
longstanding problems to the Joint Strike Fighter's helmet-mounted display
system and expects to prove out those solutions through 2012 and into 2013.437 words
A senior Air Force official told Congress this week that
negative action will not be taken against qualified F-22 Raptor pilots who
refuse to fly because of safety concerns -- including the two servicemen who
spoke out about the issue on a national television program.553 words
The House Armed Services Committee has advanced legislation
that would restrict the Air Force from retiring more than 41of its C-130
airlift aircraft, and the House Appropriations defense subcommittee is making a
move to pass legislation geared toward blocking the Air Force from proceeding
with its new force structure strategy.721 words
The House Armed Services Committee has included language in
the final mark-up of its fiscal year 2013 defense authorization bill which
mandates that the military services provide the committee with an initial
operational capability date for the Joint Strike Fighter program by the end of
the year.425 words
The Air Force's highest-priority acquisition program reached
a major design milestone late last month as the KC-46 tanker program
successfully passed its preliminary design review, prime contractor Boeing and
the Air Force announced this week.451 words
The House Armed Services Committee has advanced legislation
in its fiscal year 2013 defense authorization bill that requires Air Force
Secretary Michael Donley to assess the foreign components and space launch
capability of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program and deliver a
report on that capability to Congress within six months after the law's
enactment.717 words
House authorizers this week recommended pausing the Air
Force's proposed termination of the C-130 Avionics Modernization Program until
a federally funded research organization conducts a full cost-benefit analysis
evaluating the future of the C-130 Hercules fleet.564 words
The Air Force is crediting a competitively awarded engineering and manufacturing development contract for cutting the expense of the second Small Diameter Bomb by about $994 million.
746 words
The House Armed Services Committee, which last month
recommended providing the Air Force with more than $250 million in unrequested
funds to keep the Global Hawk Block 30 program operating, released legislative
language on May 7 that would keep the C-27J Spartan airlift fleet alive as
well.649 words
Air Force and Navy testers are awaiting the OK to begin
operational testing of the AIM-9X Block II missile, a one-year assessment
required before full-rate production of the Pentagon's most advanced
short-range air-to-air missile can begin.693 words
The House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee wants
the Defense Department's acquisition chief to submit an annual assessment for
five years on the synchronization of satellite, ground and user terminal
segments of major space acquisition programs.631 words
An amendment proposed by Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) requiring the
Pentagon to compete ground-testing activities for a program designed to strike
targets worldwide in under an hour was added Wednesday to the House authorizers'
defense bill during mark-up.414 words
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the military's top brass,
including combatant commanders overseeing U.S. operations worldwide, are
preparing to meet next week at the Pentagon to discuss major strategic and
budgetary issues amid continuing uncertainty about the magnitude of cuts the
department will face under the Budget Control Act.644 words
The Pentagon is considering a third flight of an unmanned,
rocket-launched, hypersonic air vehicle that prematurely crashed into the
Pacific Ocean during its first two test runs, according to a congressional
source.1057 words
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