The head of U.S. Transportation Command said today an ongoing Mobility Capabilities and Requirements Study may reveal a need for more intratheater airlift aircraft.
Aircraft
October 22, 2020
The Pentagon made significant headway advancing its surveillance capabilities last week when the Air Force updated software on a U-2 Dragon Lady mid-flight for the first time -- opening the door to greater use of data streaming and machine learning aboard aircraft during spy missions.
October 7, 2020
A key contractual milestone for the KC-46 tanker program expected to be achieved this summer has been pushed to mid-2021 due to supplier qualification delays, Inside Defense has learned.
October 1, 2020
The Pentagon's acquisition chief said today she believes the "root cause" of problems with the KC-46 tanker is linked to the program's fixed-price contract.
September 30, 2020
The Defense Department and Lockheed Martin have reached a handshake agreement on compensation for issues related to the company's F-35 spare parts delivery -- a deal that, when finalized, will require the company to return about $70.5 million.
September 30, 2020
The Air Force this week completed its initial round of adversary air contracts, awarding Advanced Tactical Advantage Co. a contract worth up to $92 million to provide live adversary air training to F-22 and F-35 pilots at Eglin Air Force Base, FL.
September 28, 2020
The Navy is on track to wrap up the operational testing for the Joint Precision Approach and Landing System on aircraft carriers this month.
September 24, 2020
The Air Force and Lockheed Martin have begun negotiating a lower unit cost for the next batch of commoditized F-16 fighter jets they anticipate supplying through last month's novel foreign military sale contract to a new group of customers, sources tell Inside Defense.
September 23, 2020
The Air Force is planning formal studies to consider options for a future autonomous tanking architecture that could include a mix of small, remotely piloted refueling aircraft and larger, more survivable tankers.
September 21, 2020
The Air Force is refining its acquisition strategy for the Stand-in Attack Weapon -- an emerging guided missile intended for the F-35 fighter jet -- to place greater emphasis on digital engineering and open-systems architecture.
September 18, 2020
The Air Force has tapped Lockheed Martin to exercise a project using a new contract vehicle potentially worth $15 billion for continued development and procurement of C-130J aircraft -- a five-year deal with options to buy as many as 120 aircraft that, if fully exercised, could dwarf the most recent multiyear procurement deals for the U.S. military's intra-theater lift workhorse fleet.
September 17, 2020
Boeing expects to be on contract for the first block of KC-46 modernization work by the first quarter of 2021 -- the first phase of a 10-year, $5.7 billion post-production contract the Air Force awarded the company last year.
September 16, 2020
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Brown told reporters today congressional proposals to set minimum aircraft inventory requirements put constraints on the service's ability to make necessary force structure changes to meet the requirements of the National Defense Strategy.
September 16, 2020
The White House has sent the Senate Armed Services Committee a list of provisions in the fiscal year 2021 defense authorization bill it does not like, but chose to lead with one President Trump has said would make him veto the entire must-pass bill -- the re-naming of U.S. military bases that currently honor Confederate leaders.
September 15, 2020
Air Force acquisition executive Will Roper announced today the service has flown a full-scale Next-Generation Air Dominance flight demonstrator and has "broken a lot of records in the doing."
September 14, 2020
The new head of Air Mobility Command said today that while she has seen progress in Boeing's proposed interim KC-46 Remote Vision System upgrade package, she needs more testing data and assurance that the near-term value the capability could bring to the warfighter outweighs the time it would take to upgrade existing tankers.
September 10, 2020
Unexpected software development challenges have pushed the first delivery of a major F-22 upgrade from the end of 2020 to September 2021 and drove the program and prime contractor Lockheed Martin to transition in June from a cost-plus contract to a hybrid, fixed-price arrangement.
September 9, 2020
A new Defense Department inspector general report finds that the F-35 joint program office has a "nonfunctioning process" to determine whether damaged parts should be repaired or discarded -- an issue that has led to a reduction in available spare parts and disposal of hundreds of parts without DOD approval.
September 3, 2020
The CH-53K King Stallion helicopter performed well during its sea trials, which ended in June, and is now undergoing testing in a desert-like environment, according to the Marine Corps.
August 31, 2020
The Next Generation Jammer-Mid Band program, the Navy and Marine Corps $8.7 billion maritime airborne electronic attack modernization effort, achieved an important developmental milestone this month when a prototype was flown for the first time on an EA-18G Growler, a key step for a project that suffered serious design setbacks three years ago.