The experiment is expected to eventually lead to the wholesale replacement of the Air Force’s slow, cumbersome and ineffectual network with a modern, commercially procured one with improved speed, security and functionality.
Senior Pentagon and service officials observed the last day of the ground-breaking ABMS exercise and the Air Force engaged Northern Command to create and manage the scenario.
Partnerships with outside industry are a cornerstone of the kingdom’s ambitious growth strategy.
Although retiring the B-2 fleet could save the Air Force nearly $3 billion, CSIS cautions that doing so "would leave the nation without a long-range penetrating strike aircraft and would weaken the airborne component of the nuclear triad."
"I suppose it is possible it could happen," CSIS's Todd Harrison says of a one-year CR for DoD, "but it never has happened and it is unlikely it ever will."
Contracts are expected by the end of the year for the A-29 and in early 2020 for the AT-6. The Air Force plans to buy "two or three of both," an Air Force spokeswoman said.
"But make no mistake…if in fact a war starts or extends into space, everyone loses," Air Force Chief of Staff David Goldfein told the AFA 2019 conference. "I don’t see any winners.”
Balancing security and access to data are critical to providing users with trustworthy, reliable data for real-time decisions.
Let's not get too carried away. "We've got to earn our way to cislunar," Will Roper said with a chuckle. "We've got to prove we can do LEO and GEO well." Still, "this isn't too far fetched."
"Launching hundreds of cheap satellites each year as a substitute" for current milspace systems "will result in failure on America's worst day if we relay on them alone," Wilson says.
WASHINGTON: The first concrete step to creating an independent force of trained and equipped space warriors occurred today — but that’s not the most important step on space the nation should take, the Air Force Chief of Staff said today. Setting up Space Command, so the US can more effectively fight any war that involves space assets, […]
JSF HQ: The head of the Joint Strike Fighter program, Vice Adm. Mat Winter, says the crucial operating costs of the F-35 dropped significantly in 2017. Winters told a group of defense reporters that the costs of operating the F-35 fleet dropped by $1.1 million “per tail per year across the fleet” and cited “a […]
On today’s battlefield, mobility isn’t optional - it’s mission-critical.
WASHINGTON: The first-ever real-world strike by an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is a big symbolic moment, as the Pentagon is well aware. It’s also a milestone towards making the F-35 a close-support aircraft to bomb targets threatening US ground troops, replacing the beloved A-10 Warthog. That’s why the military not only had a press release […]
Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson announced “the Air Force we need”, a significant expansion of the Air Force from 312 operational squadrons to 386. One thing is clear. It will be really expensive. The annual additional cost would be about $37 billion at a time when budget projections show no increase, and up to 94,000 additional personnel, active and reserve.
So reporters kept pressing Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Chief of Staff David Goldfein for answers to the reasonable question: How will the Air Force afford 74 more squadrons with all the people, planes, satellites, and infrastructure needed to make them useful?
Here we go. TA DA! Our first podcasts, exclusive interviews with Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein and Strategic Command's Gen. John Hyten.