AI Copilot Based On Gaming Software Takes Flight

AI Copilot Based On Gaming Software Takes Flight
AI Copilot Based On Gaming Software Takes Flight

“For flying an instrument approach, having an AI copilot makes sense,” says retired general ‘Hawk’ Carlisle, former head of Air Combat Command.

White House Industrial Base Study Focuses On Near-Term Fixes

White House Industrial Base Study Focuses On Near-Term Fixes
White House Industrial Base Study Focuses On Near-Term Fixes

These single points of failure already limit military modernization and potentially could disrupt operations in a crisis. That’s especially true if production needed to ramp up urgently for a major war, a subject the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, has publicly angsted about.

Gen. Pawlikowski Unveils Key Air Force Planning Group: PCA, PEW, OA-X, MDC2!

Gen. Pawlikowski Unveils Key Air Force Planning Group: PCA, PEW, OA-X, MDC2!
Gen. Pawlikowski Unveils Key Air Force Planning Group: PCA, PEW, OA-X, MDC2!

ORLANDO:  A half-dozen people in the Air Force are helping to define the service’s as part of a major new approach to deciding what weapons to buy, known as Strategic Development Planning Experimentation. The effort is led by Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, the commander of Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson AFB. The first iteration of SDPE (as…

Drones Do Excellent Urban Close Air Support; Mideast F-35A Deployment In Several Years

Drones Do Excellent Urban Close Air Support; Mideast F-35A Deployment In Several Years
Drones Do Excellent Urban Close Air Support; Mideast F-35A Deployment In Several Years

WASHINGTON: If Congress was skeptical of bombers and fighters doing Close Air Support, how will they react to MQ-9s doing the toughest CAS mission around — taking out targets in the close confines of an urban fight? Gen. Hawk Carlisle, the soon-to-retire head of Air Combat Command, told reporters this morning that the Reaper is…

Airmen First, Weapons Second: SecAF James

Airmen First, Weapons Second: SecAF James
Airmen First, Weapons Second: SecAF James

 AFA: For the foreseeable future, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told me today, when push comes to shove, personnel funding should win and modernization must wait. “If you’re asking me if I have to choose between the two, then I vote for people,” she said. “I’m going to protect people.” Of course, the Air…

Air Force Declares F-35A IOC; Major Milestone For Biggest US Program

Air Force Declares F-35A IOC; Major Milestone For Biggest US Program
Air Force Declares F-35A IOC; Major Milestone For Biggest US Program

UPDATED: Adds ACC Carlisle, CSAF Goldfein, SecAF James JPO Bogdan Comments PENTAGON: Critics of the F-35 warned it was too heavy. They warned its stealth wasn’t good enough. They warned stealth, however good, wasn’t enough against advanced detection methods. They warned its range was too short and its weapons load too light. They warned it was…

F-35A Looks A Lock For IOC OK; CAS As Good As F-16

F-35A Looks A Lock For IOC OK; CAS As Good As F-16
F-35A Looks A Lock For IOC OK; CAS As Good As F-16

WASHINGTON: All the boxes are ticked for the Air Force to declare the F-35A ready for combat. The final clearance hasn’t been given by the man who will decide, Air Combat Command’s Gen. Hawk Carlisle, but he has received all the data on the planes, pilots and maintainers, said Lt. Col. Steven Anderson, 388th Maintenance…

BAE Systems Inches Out In Public On Electronic Warfare

BAE Systems Inches Out In Public On Electronic Warfare
BAE Systems Inches Out In Public On Electronic Warfare

FARNBOROUGH: For much of the last few years when one thought of electronic warfare, one tended to think of Raytheon. After all, they’re building the Next Generation Jammer, right? BAE Systems would like to change that and is beginning to take a guarded but more public stance. For years, Air Force officials have declined to…

F-35 Could Be Deployed To Mideast Soon; Brexit Dominates NATO Summit

F-35 Could Be Deployed To Mideast Soon; Brexit Dominates NATO Summit
F-35 Could Be Deployed To Mideast Soon; Brexit Dominates NATO Summit

LONDON: Gen. Hawk Carlisle, head of Air Combat Command, pulled no punches when I asked him at the Royal International Air Tattoo if the F-35’s flying displays in Britain should be read as a signal to Russia. “Yes. You bet.” Several generals at the Royal International Air Tattoo agreed with Carlisle’s view that the plane’s appearance at RIAT and…

Air Combat Commander Bullish On F-35 IOC

Air Combat Commander Bullish On F-35 IOC
Air Combat Commander Bullish On F-35 IOC

RIAT: No roadblocks stand in the way of approving Initial Operating Capability (IOC) for the Air Force’s F-35A, Gen. Hawk Carlisle said here today. The head of Air Combat Command — who is the man charged with ensuring Lockheed Martin meets all the benchmarks for IOC — made clear nothing would happen until Air Force…

F-35Bs Land In UK Today; Hover & Refueling Demos At RIAT, Farnborough

F-35Bs Land In UK Today; Hover & Refueling Demos At RIAT, Farnborough
F-35Bs Land In UK Today; Hover & Refueling Demos At RIAT, Farnborough

The first three F-35Bs to leave the United States land in the United Kingdom today, having left the US this morning. The Air Force’s two F-35As leave tomorrow. Perhaps the highlight of this year’s Farnborough Air Show and Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) will come when the B models, used by the US Marines and Royal…

HASC AirLand Asks: Should We Restart The F-22???

HASC AirLand Asks: Should We Restart The F-22???
HASC AirLand Asks: Should We Restart The F-22???

WASHINGTON: It’s a bit hard to believe, but the House Armed Services Air and Land Forces subcommittee wants the Pentagon to consider the possibility of restarting the F-22 production line. “In light of growing threats to U.S. air superiority as a result of adversaries closing the technology gap and increasing demand from allies and partners…

F-22, Typhoon, Rafale: Lessons From The Trilateral Wargame

F-22, Typhoon, Rafale: Lessons From The Trilateral Wargame
F-22, Typhoon, Rafale: Lessons From The Trilateral Wargame

As former Air Force Chief of Staff “Buzz” Moseley once declared, “there is not a place on the face of the earth that the USAF will not fight their way into.” But this aspiration has been complicated by 15 years of fighting low-end opponents like the Taliban even as peer adversaries like China and Russia…

Gen. Carlisle: JTACS In Iraq Would Mean Lots Of US Ground Troops

Gen. Carlisle: JTACS In Iraq Would Mean Lots Of US Ground Troops
Gen. Carlisle: JTACS In Iraq Would Mean Lots Of US Ground Troops

America was surprised last summer by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL) lightning offensive. After 25 years of flying and fighting around the world. the Air Force’s Air Combat Command was able to rapidly shift portions of its Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) network towards Iraq, launching 80 ISR missions over Iraq in the first…