Costs Plunge So ‘Rocket Cargo’ To Battlefield Takes Off

If industry can “turn this into a human transport mechanism — which some of the companies are talking about doing — sure the DoD would be interested in exploring options for that, just as we do with the airlines, and the shipping industries today,”AFRL’s Program Manager Greg Spanjers said.

Space Force Wants Extra $$ To Speed Deep Space Ops

The largest of the four categories is called “Develop A Warfighter Punch” and includes $279 million for classified programs.

Solar Power Sats Help Drive DoD Deep Space Push

“[W]e don’t have a military reason to go to the Moon today, but we do have long term-objectives that include the expansion out to the Moon and beyond,” Space Force Chief Scientist Joel Mozer says. 

DARPA Nuke Sat To Target Cislunar Monitoring Mission

AFRL last Thursday held a classified stakeholder meeting to discuss R&D to underpin future military operations beyond the traditional near-Earth orbits used today.

Electronic Warfare Apps On Horizon For F-15s, Plus

The Air Force wants software “that can be fielded in the next two years and incrementally improved upon and integrated into EW systems currently in development for the F-15.”

Valkyrie Drops A Drone Of Its Own

UPDATED: To explain that LCASD program is done with flight tests. WASHINGTON: The Air Force’s low-cost XQ-58A Valkyrie drone has tested a new capability — launching its own drone — designed to boost its abilities to counter enemy air defense missiles and protect higher-value aircraft such as fighters and tankers. The Air Force Research Laboratory…

Some ‘Quick Wins,’ But Air Force Struggles With AI

“We need to move away from these single point demos to true scalability,” Jean-Charles Ledé, AFRL’s advisor on autonomy tech, says.

Air Force Drone Plan May Rile MQ-9 Champions

“This is a new effort, as the expanded mission now goes beyond a strict MQ-9 replacement,” an AFLCMC spokesperson said. “This endeavor serves to explore concepts that address capability gaps of legacy platforms against increasingly sophisticated threats in denied, contested, and highly contested environments.”

Air Force Culls ABMS Experiment After Budget Cut

The sixth ABMS onramp “was going to be in partnership with Australia, and allies and partners, in the Pacific Rim,” Air Force Chief Architect Preston Dunlap said, but “just due to the budget constraints, we had to pull the plug on that.”

AFRL, NORTHCOM Eye Commercial Internet Sats For Arctic

“We’ll have communications capability up there within the next year or so,” said NORTHCOM commander Gen. Glen VanHerck.

AFRL Pushes Laser “SHiELD” Flight Test Back, Again

CSIS’s Todd Harrison said he believes that  the “many challenges” to the SHiELD concept can be overcome “with time and money” —  and could well be worth expending because of the potential benefits.

DARPA Space Manufacturing Project Sparks Controversy

“As you surely know, there is a lot of emotion in this on both sides of the argument, making it as much political as it is legal,” said attorney Henry Hertzfeld of the DARPA plans.

Operational Comms, Missile Tracking Sats Up In 2024: SDA

The next group of satellites, “Tranche 1 is going to be a big deal,” says SDA Director Derek Tournear, ensuring troops have “persistent regional access” to comms and missile warning/tracking data.

AFRL’s WeaponONE Aims To Rapidly Build Digital Design, Engineering Tools

AFRL’s WeaponONE is serving as a pathfinder program for Air Force Materiel Command’s digital campaign to integrate digital tools into its operations.