U.S. Air Force (USAF)

By Brian Everstine
With major F-15 retirements and a reduction in F-15EX buys, the U.S. Air Force’s fleet of Eagles faces a rocky future.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble
Despite the schedule change appearing in budget documents, nothing has changed and the program’s status is still being assessed, an Air Force spokesperson said.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Brian Everstine
While the Pentagon remains vexed on the November crash, the U.S. Navy says progress is being made on the clutch issue.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble
The Holloman High Speed Test Track has been used to support the recent surge of hypersonic test activity, but it needs upgrades.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble
The U.S. Air Force has pushed back the in-service date by about another year for the Boeing T-7 Red Hawk to 2028.
Light Attack and Advanced Training

By Brian Everstine
The U.S. Air Force plans to increase the program of record for its KC-46 refueling tanker as it looks to accelerate a follow-on next generation replacement.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Brian Everstine
USAF is upping procurement spending on the B-21 Raider, though not as much as originally expected because of a favorable negotiated price with Northrop Grumman.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Brian Everstine
Procurement of the U.S. Air Force’s next-generation T-7 trainer is set to begin in fiscal 2025, but at half the number originally expected.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Brian Everstine
The ARRW is currently deployed to Andersen AFB, Guam, where it is expected to be tested on a B-52 soon.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Brian Everstine
For the second time in less than two years, the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey fleet will return to flight after a grounding with a patchwork of mitigations.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble
The USAF may have to convert some F-35s with outdated avionics to combat roles due to the ongoing, “deeply concerning” delays with software certification.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Brian Everstine
The U.S. Air Force is evaluating bids from Airbus and Boeing for a planned replacement of the KC-135 ahead of a future tanker.
Aircraft & Propulsion

The U.S. Air Force wants the Raytheon Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) to transition to production ahead of any tests of the missile.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Brian Everstine
Reengining the C-17 and adding low-cost connectivity upgrades emerge as top priorities for Air Mobility Command.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Brian Everstine
The Pentagon will lift its more than 90-day grounding of the Bell Boeing V-22 tiltrotor fleet, the head of a House committee investigating the aircraft announced March 6.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Steve Trimble
Saudi Arabia and India will test the new appeal of the Embraer tanker-transport in a tactical airlift market long monopolized by Lockheed Martin.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Mark Carreau
NASA raised the number of its active duty astronauts eligible for missions from 38 to 48 on March 5 with the graduation of its 2021 class of 10 candidates.
Space

By Chen Chuanren
The U.S. Air Force is putting its Lockheed Martin F-35A through its paces in the type’s most complex deployment to the Asia Pacific.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Steve Trimble
A Boeing acquisition of all or part of Spirit AeroSystems could be, if consummated, a surprise coup for the former’s defense business.
Supply Chain

By Brian Everstine
The U.S. military in the coming days will start a campaign of air dropping aid to Palestinians in Gaza, President Joe Biden announced March 1.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Garrett Reim
The public-private fellowship partnership placed officers, enlisted personnel and DOD civilians into startups, accelerators and venture capital firms.
Supply Chain

By Guy Norris
An airline operator pre-working group will guide plans for the commercial blended wing body as subscale flight tests pave way for a multirole demonstrator.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Brian Everstine
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems announced Feb. 29 that its XA-67A Off-Board Sensing Station (OBSS) flew for the first time the day before.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Brian Everstine
A long-standing provision in the U.S. code to block investments in retiring weapon systems may negatively impact the ground leg of the nation’s nuclear triad.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Steve Trimble
A decades-old ambition to make multiday, ultralong-endurance flight a reality is quietly solidifying within the U.S. military after a series of failures and false starts.
Aircraft & Propulsion