The Air Force is further delaying the production contract for its newest trainer aircraft, the T-7 Red Hawk, and will expand its testing in a major reorganization of the program’s acquisition strategy.
The service originally planned to award Boeing a contract to build the first production T-7s in fiscal 2025 and would have bought seven jets this year. Under the Air Force and Boeing’s revised…
After spending a year working on pilot programs for a future battlefield command-and-control capability, the U.S. Army is on the brink of starting an effort to competitively prototype a next-generation system, according to the service’s program office in charge of the…
Troy Meink: A Leader in the Air Force
January 17, 2025
President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday he’s tapping Troy Meink, second in command at the National Reconnaissance Office, to be secretary of the Air Force.
Meink began his career as a KC-135 tanker navigator in 1988. He went on to hold a variety of roles across the Air…
Raytheon aims to boost SM-3 missile production rates
January 16, 2025
Raytheon is investing in its Standard Missile 3 lines to accelerate the production rate of the U.S. Navy weapon, as global interest in procuring the capability expands amid successful intercepts against ballistic missile attacks in the Middle East.
Raytheon produces both the SM-3 Block IB and the newer SM-3 Block IIA capable of defeating short- and medium-range ballistic missiles. The SM-3 became…
PARIS — Denmark repatriated three more F-35 Joint Strike Fighters it had been using for pilot training in the U.S., finalizing a workaround to delivery delays by Lockheed Martin, after the Nordic country already flew home four aircraft in an older configuration in…
Kendall floats F-35 successor, casts 2050 vision for Air Force
January 16, 2025
The Air Force under a Trump administration could choose to pursue a more advanced successor to the F-35 successor instead of the costly Next Generation Air Dominance platform to maintain air superiority, outgoing Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said Monday.
Kendall…
Drone sightings lead to airspace shutdown at Ohio military base
January 13, 2025
BOSTON — More suspected drone sightings in the eastern U.S. led to a temporary airspace shutdown at an Air Force base in Ohio and arrests near Boston’s Logan International Airport, as elected officials increased their push for action to identify and stop the mysterious unmanned flights.
Drones flying around Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, forced base officials to close the…
The Army is scouring industry for unmanned aircraft systems to launch from medium- or high-altitude platforms that would perform tasks like intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, according to a request for information posted to the federal business opportunities…
COLOGNE, Germany — The Germany Navy has tested the BlueWhale underwater drone as a candidate platform for what the sea service envisions as a future fleet of unmanned vessels for combating enemy submarines. The German sea service explicitly envisions an anti-submarine…
For the U.S. Navy to achieve a proposed plan to expand its fleet of battle force ships, the service would need to spend $40.1 billion on shipbuilding every year through 2054, for a total of more than $1 trillion, according to new analysis from the Congressional Budget Office.
Over the next 30 years, the Navy wants to grow its fleet of battle force ships to 381 to face swelling global threats…
