U.S. Air Force (USAF)

By Steve Trimble
U.S. Air Force officials have not backed off predictions of a first flight coming later this year, but certain conditions and a note of doubt have creeped in.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Brian Everstine
The U.S. Air Force plans to increase spending on its future Survivable Airborne Operations Center to replace the aging E-4B Nightwatch.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Graham Warwick
The contract is focused on metal tooling for fast-cure, out-of-autoclave composites processing.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Brian Everstine
The Air Force is planning to buy 10 Wedgetails over the next five years to recapitalize its air-moving target indicator mission.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Brian Everstine
The U.S. Air Force and Navy are using new congressional authorities to buy Raytheon AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM).
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Brian Everstine
The U.S. Air Force will see its spending increase dramatically in nuclear modernization over the next five years.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Steve Trimble
No procurement funding for the single-engine jet trainer appears in the fiscal 2024 budget request rolled out by the U.S. Defense Department.
Light Attack and Advanced Training

By Chen Chuanren
Singapore’s ministry of defense has confirmed that the U.S. Air Force sent the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk on a “short-term deployment” to the island.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Brian Everstine
The U.S. Air Force is requesting $1.9 billion in RDT&E for its Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) platform, an increase from $1.7 billion in fiscal 2023.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Brian Everstine
The U.S. Air Force is focusing heavily on maritime strike as it looks toward the Pacific with a need for munitions.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Brian Everstine
The U.S. Space Force is investing in new offensive capabilities in space.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Brian Everstine
The U.S. Air Force is again asking for permission from Congress to retire hundreds of aircraft.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Brian Everstine
The U.S. Air Force wants to increase its buy of Boeing F-15EXs above what was previously planned.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Brian Everstine
The U.S. Air Force will not go ahead with a full engine replacement for its Lockheed Martin F-35A.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Brian Everstine
Next-Generation Air Dominance to be approximately a one-for-one F-22 replacement, bolstered by collaborative combat aircraft.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Brian Everstine
Officials call for clean-sheet designs, saying commercial-derivative refuelers are not survivable.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Graham Warwick
Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.
Aerospace

By Brian Everstine
The Air National Guard has increased the numbers of F-15s it flies, and keeping them in the air has taken creative fleet management and intensive maintenance.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Brian Everstine
The U.S. Air Force recently deployed F-22s to a tiny, bare base in the Pacific for the first in a significant demonstration of its new agile operating concept.
Budget, Policy & Operations

The U.S. Air Force is pressing ahead on its desire for an Advanced Tactical Trainer.
Light Attack and Advanced Training

By Brian Everstine
U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall spoke to Aerospace DAILY March 8 in an interview at the Air Force Association Air Warfare Symposium.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Steve Trimble
DARPA selected GA-ASI in March 2022 to advance to the next phase of the project in March 2022, but a year passed before the manufacturer announced the news.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Steve Trimble
A plan emerges to establish weapons-making capacity in Australia, starting with perhaps a new production order for Ukraine.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Steve Trimble
The image, which the U.S. Air Force published on March 7, reveals for the first time that the inlets are shaped like sideways teardrops.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Brian Everstine
Russian fighter jets have increased their operations near and over U.S. locations in Syria in recent weeks, a U.S. Air Force lieutenant general says.
Budget, Policy & Operations