“We were asked to put in our offer and then they [the NATO Support and Procurement Agency] didn’t really go into discussion with us, because they had already decided they had to go and buy Wedgetail,” Micael Johansson, CEO at Saab told Breaking Defense.
By Tim MartinB-21, hypersonics and more: How digital development is driving industry innovation
Technological advancements are key to keeping pace with customer demands and evolving threat landscapes.
As Breaking Defense toured Boeing’s Seattle area facilities where the E-7 radar plane will take shape, company officials talked about getting the bird in the air — and their vision for what it can do.
By Michael Marrow The Air Force previously provided notice it would award the contract to Boeing in a sole-source acquisition. The first aircraft is scheduled to arrive in fiscal 2027.
By Michael Marrow
“That new start reprogramming would give us the flexibility to potentially speed it up somewhat,” said Steven Wert, who leads the Air Force’s Program Executive Office Digital. “It’s not going to be a dramatic speed up, but we’re doing everything we can.”
By Valerie Insinna The Air Force can’t wait when it comes to modernizing command and control, writes the Mitchell Institute’s Douglas Birkey.
By Doug Birkey
“Getting the airplanes is about a two-year process, and then modifying them is another two year process,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said Tuesday. “There are things that we could do, however, to maybe get access to aircraft earlier one way or another.”
By Valerie Insinna
Enterprise-wide training: the Army’s $3.5B program for multi-service combat readiness
The competition for Warfighter Training and Readiness Solutions will bring together training networks, combat training centers and live ranges across the DoD enterprise.
According to two sources with knowledge of the matter, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall had tasked the service’s budget corps to consider cancelling the F-15EX. Instead, it will receive a plus-up in the FY23 request.
By Valerie Insinna
As the service works to procure the required number of E-7As as quickly as possible, it should simultaneously implement a comprehensive plan to expedite the training of US Air Force pilots and air battle management crews.
By Bradley Bowman and Mark Montgomery
The upcoming sole source contract to Boeing for more data on the Wedgetail suggests that the service may seek to eschew a competition.
By Valerie Insinna
The Air Force has valiantly breathed life into the decades-old E-3 Sentry platform, but as top service officials recently suggested, it can no longer wait for the jump to space-based systems, the authors write in this op-ed. The Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Bradley Bowman, Maj. Lauren Harrison and Ryan Brobst argue that as Russia…
By Bradley Bowman, Lauren Harrison and Ryan Brobst
Acquiring the Wedgetail “gives us a path” while the service awaits a space-based capability, Air Force Chief of Staff CQ Brown said, as “an option to be able to get the capability much faster than if we were to start a new start from scratch.”
By Theresa Hitchens
“China is not mentioned with one single word in the current Strategic Concept,” said NATO SecGen Jens Stoltenberg. “In one [way] or the other, I’m absolutely certain China will be reflected, and the challenges that China poses will be reflected” in the planned 2022 update.
By Theresa Hitchens
The deployment of the two US Navy ships, along with a refueling ship, is the largest American presence in the waterway in three years.
By Paul McLeary
Congress is worried about creating a capability gap – but FDD’s Bradley Bowman and Maj. Brian Leitzke write that it already exists. Time and money, they say, would be better spent racing towards the E-3’s replacement.
By Bradley Bowman and Maj. Brian Leitzke