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.
The company revealed a new drone dubbed FANG and is championing a separate system the company is acquiring by buying manufacturer FlightWave Aerospace Systems.
Boeing is currently revising the schedule for the presidential jetliner once again, which is expected to be updated later this summer, according to an Air Force spokesperson.
“The deliberations are still underway, there’s been no decision made. We’re looking at a lot of very difficult options that we have to consider,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin said today when asked about the sixth-generation fighter.
The amendment to break congressionally-mandated spending caps, offered by Sen. Roger Wicker, the committee’s top Republican, led SASC Chairman Jack Reed to vote against the bill.
In what would be a stark reversal for a high-profile program, Gen. David Allvin appeared to include the Next Generation Air Dominance fighter among “choices” the service is still making amid budget constraints.
“I’ll assure you folks that we’re not going to let this matter drop,” House Oversight subcommittee chairman Glenn Grothman, R-Wisc., told families of victims who attended a congressional hearing today on the safety of the V-22 Osprey.
Funding tables show the detailed changes House appropriators make in their $833 billion version of the FY25 spending bill, with big cuts to programs like the Air Force’s beleaguered Sentinel ICBM.
A second operational fighter is expected to be delivered “in the next couple of weeks,” according to a Boeing spokesperson, averting a potential schedule breach for the F-15EX program.
The crashed F-35 was supposed to add to the small test fleet of just 43 aircraft, many of which are older models that can suffer from maintenance issues, the F-35 Joint Program Office tells Breaking Defense.
Anduril Industries, Integrated Solutions for Systems, Leidos Dynetics and Zone 5 Technologies will now compete to carry their drone prototypes into production.
The crash occurred just before 2 p.m. on Tuesday after the jet took off from Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The aircraft was an F-35B test jet on its way to Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California.
Northrop Grumman and Piasecki Aircraft Corporation have been eliminated from a DARPA effort to design, develop and fly a high-speed vertical takeoff and landing X-plane.
“[W]hat we have done is assured the Air Force that everything we produce under the contract becomes their data,” said Brady Hauboldt, SNC’s vice president of aviation strategic plans and programs.
