Air Force

Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist officially ordered the establishment of a joint all-domain command and control cross-functional team in a memo signed last week.

The Air Force's new Space Fence radar system is demonstrating the ability to track significantly more small objects in space, but a new report from the Pentagon's top weapons tester concludes that until the service secures a second radar site, the system will not have the power to "continuously track and maintain awareness of these small objects.

The Air Force expects to have final approval for its B-52 engine replacement program test strategy by April -- an oversight requirement lawmakers directed in the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act due to concerns the service is imposing too much risk on the program by using mid-tier acquisition authorities to procure the engines.

The Defense Department is crafting a legislative proposal to submit to Congress by Feb. 20 that lays out possible authorities and policy changes to support its next steps in standing up the new service.

The Air Force today delivered to Congress its plan for the organizational structure of the Space Force, outlining "clean sheet" plans to stand up a lean, agile service.

The Air Force has tallied a $2.6 billion tab for its Enhanced Polar System-Recapitalization program, an extremely high frequency satellite system that when combined with an associated ground component is designed to provide naval forces operating in north polar regions -- such as nuclear-armed submarines -- secure, anti-jam communications that are difficult for an adversary to detect.

The Small Diameter Bomb II has a cumbersome process to load Link 16 data, creating a "significant challenge" for timely mission planning and complicating the delivery of valid targeting information for attacks against moving targets, according to a new report from the Pentagon's chief weapons tester.

One year after the Combat Rescue Helicopter program received a searing review from the Pentagon’s chief weapons evaluator, more testing has exposed new technical constraints and performance issues in degraded visual and live-fire environments.

The Pentagon's top weapons tester has labeled the F-35 joint program office's Block 4 modernization schedule as "high risk" due to inefficiencies in testing and software releases as well as a backlog of 13 Category 1 deficiencies that he says must be addressed before the program integrates significant new capability.