Air Force buying two Lufthansa 747s for delayed Air Force One program
The service is spending $400 million on the pair of jumbo jets for training and spares.
Air Force poised to retake ‘Looking Glass’ mission from Navy
The move would once again make it the Air Force’s responsibility to maintain airborne command posts capable of launching nuclear ICBMs.
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Congress denies Air Force request for second C-40 VIP transport plane
The new C-40s would supplement executive airlift missions for “Top Five” users — the vice president, first spouse, defense secretary, Joint Chiefs chairman and secretary of state — who rely on a fleet of C-32 aircraft that can only support 59 percent of Top Five travel requests, the Air Force told Breaking Defense.
SNC plans ‘fully digital’ development for Air Force’s ‘Doomsday plane’ replacement
"[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.
Air Force awards SNC $13B contract for new ‘Doomsday’ plane
The win is a major victory for the firm in a competition that saw the surprise elimination of aerospace giant Boeing.
Boeing out of E-4B ‘Doomsday Plane’ replacement competition
Boeing and the Air Force reportedly could not agree on the E-4B replacement's contract terms and data rights.
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Strategic forces subcommittee frets over aging ‘Doomsday’ nuclear command planes
The House subcommittee's markup of the fiscal 2023 defense policy bill also calls upon GAO to review the effectiveness of the NC3 Enterprise Center run by STRATCOM.
STRATCOM Head Tells Hill He’s ‘Confident’ In NC3 Cybersecurity
"If you try to life-extend a weapon system that was built before the invention of the Internet, and then turn around and ask me why it's not cyber-secure -- I don't know how," Adm. Charles Richard told SASC today.
Congress Fears DoD Not Prepared For NC3 Cyber Attacks
NC3 is "the last line of communication capabilities and associated equipment that we know will always be there during our worst day," explains Air Force Lt. Gen. James Dawkins, deputy CSAF for strategic deterrence and nuclear integration.
Aircraft Readiness Is Bad & Getting Worse: GAO
Of 46 types of aircraft surveyed – from the new F-35 to the aging JSTARS – not one met the Pentagon’s goal of being 80 percent “mission capable.” Most of them, in fact, keep getting worse.
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Air Force To Kick Off E-4B Replacement Competition In 2021
The Air Force has set Feb. 12-13 at Hanscom AFB in Massachusetts as the first industry day for the E-4B replacement program.
No Nuke Bombers On Call 24/7, But Alert Centers Being Upgraded
WASHINGTON: The Air Force Chief of Staff appeared to be talking about putting nuclear-armed bombers back on 24-hour alert, but the man who’d make the decision, the head of Strategic Command, wasn’t. After my colleague Marcus Weisgerber reported that Gen. David Goldfein said the Air Force was considering putting bombers back on alert, I checked with […]
Air Force Cautions On Light Attack Combat Test: AF1 Refueling Update
PENTAGON: It’s always difficult to tell when the military is covering its tuckus and when it’s just being careful. So when the outgoing head of the Air Force press desk, Col. Patrick Ryder, told reporters this afternoon that the service had not made any decision about whether to go ahead with a combat test of […]
Dunford Says White House Nixes Refueling For New Air Force One
WASHINGTON: Gen. Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, told the Senate Armed Services Committee today that the White House had decided not to include aerial refueling as a capability for the next Air Force One fleet. Why? To save money. President Donald Trump has apparently made the decision, reflected by this decision and the […]