Michael Marrow covers air warfare for Breaking Defense. He holds a BA in history from the University of Virginia and started out as a freelance reporter covering local news in Fairfax County, Virginia and policing in Charlottesville, Virginia. Michael previously reported on the Air Force and Space Force for Inside Defense, where he tracked major acquisitions, policy changes and modernization efforts.
“I’d go so far as say if you drive north of the National Cathedral on Connecticut Avenue, that popping sound you hear is not stray gunfire. It is champagne corks at the Chinese embassy bouncing off the walls,” Air Force Gen. Mark Kelly said.
Gen. Mark Kelly, who heads the Air Force’s Air Combat Command, said that the US’s shrinking and aging aircraft fleet has emboldened Russian and Chinese pilots to seek “batting practice.”
“We’re still hopeful of having first flight this year,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said. “If I were to say it will, I would be making a very specific prediction, and I never do that about an acquisition program for something that hasn’t happened yet.”
Air National Guard Director Lt. Gen. Michael Loh called the F-16s a potential “gamechanger” for Ukraine, but said the timeline for pilots depends mostly on experience levels.
“What I would say is, be on the lookout [because] there’s going to be a CCA near you… because we’re gonna need them around just about everywhere,” Pacific Air Forces Commander Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach said.
“We just kind of need to get their no-kidding ground truth of, ‘this is what we think we can deliver and when we think we can deliver it,'” Andrew Hunter, the service’s acquisition chief, said in a Sept. 5 interview at the Pentagon.
Service officials hope that Congress will back Secretary Frank Kendall’s proposal to allow some new programs to begin early work, even if a continuing resolution is in place.
Boeing Chief Financial Officer Brian West previously warned that it could take several years until the company’s struggling defense sector turns a profit.
Department of the Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall’s letter didn’t specify what “broader and more comprehensive” changes officials are examining, though he did note the review is set to conclude by January 2024.
The defense giant previously expected to deliver the first in a new series of upgraded F-35s by the end of this year, a schedule that has now slipped to April 2024 at the earliest.
A Raytheon spokesperson said an upgraded domestic variant of the missile would be fielded “by the end of the year,” with an international variant expected to pass a critical milestone in “late 2023 or early 2024.”
While the Pentagon is still figuring out how to effectively ferry supplies across the Indo-Pacific theater, a top TRANSCOM official warned that the command may not have all the tools it needs to accurately track supplies in transit.
With Russian engines out of the picture, there’s a new Medium Launch Vehicle on the horizon that is US sourced with a fairing sized to launch constellations.
With Russian engines out of the picture, there’s a new Medium Launch Vehicle on the horizon that is US sourced with a fairing sized to launch constellations.
The competition for Warfighter Training and Readiness Solutions will bring together training networks, combat training centers and live ranges across the DoD enterprise.
The competition for Warfighter Training and Readiness Solutions will bring together training networks, combat training centers and live ranges across the DoD enterprise.
