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 joint effort to get a sixth-gen stealth fighter in the air by 2035 is to be headquartered in the UK, while a Japanese official will be the first program leader.
A senior Space Force official said the Air Force was getting “rid” of the current structure as part of a great power reoptimization, but later walked back his comments as “not concrete.”
A wide-ranging hearing on the F-35 revealed new details on the aircraft’s current operations, as well as its developmental struggles, including its beleaguered TR-3 upgrade.
Air Force Special Operations Command said that “preliminary investigation information” into a Nov. 29 crash that killed eight “indicates a potential materiel failure caused the mishap, but the underlying cause of the failure is unknown at this time.”
The Air Force transitioned from “rescue” to “recovery” operations after determining that two of the eight crew members who have not been located or recovered are likely also deceased.
“It is an urgent issue. … We need counter UAS capabilities at scale,” said Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Bill LaPlante. “We need lots of money, we need production lines to go up fast.”
At the Reagan National Defense Forum, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also emphasized that Jerusalem must minimize civilian deaths in Gaza in order to keep any tactical victory from turning into a strategic defeat.
“What we found is that systems that are heavily reliant on contractor support, that have a minimum of government-owned intellectual property or access to the intellectual property, that the flexibility to make changes in accordance with a new national security environment is limited,” Assistant Secretary of Defense Christopher Lowman told Breaking Defense.
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment Christopher Lowman told Breaking Defense that negotiations on the performance-based logistics agreement with Lockheed are at an impasse.
The new Viper Shield electronic warfare suite, meant to help foreign F-16 customers fend off modern EW threats, will be ready for production in late 2025, L3Harris told Breaking Defense in Dubai.
David Alexander, president of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, told Breaking Defense several options could power the company’s Gambit drone offering, and that the Air Force has been more forthcoming with cost expectations behind closed doors.
The company has incurred some $1.3 billion in charges on the delayed program, but a senior official at the Dubai Airshow sees much clearer skies ahead.
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.
With programs like MTC, Millennium Space Systems is redefining what it means to be an operational prime – rapidly delivering operational small sat constellations on rapid timelines.
With programs like MTC, Millennium Space Systems is redefining what it means to be an operational prime – rapidly delivering operational small sat constellations on rapid timelines.
