Amid lawmaker concerns about turf tussles, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and NRO Director Chris Scoloese have an "informal agreement" to "work cooperatively to address DoD's ISR needs from space."
The Air Force has sought to retire the Global Hawk at various points over the last decade, but now has an official retirement target for the high-altitude drones, Breaking Defense has learned.
Knowing when to build on commercial systems and when to develop something new can be the difference between parity and information dominance.
ARTEMIS “has both electronic collection and ground scanning radar so it could for example see the movement of tanks in real time, and collect RF [radio frequency] signals emitted by adversaries,” said Tom Spoehr of the Heritage Foundation. “Its sensors can go hundreds of miles out, so with the route it is flying it can see well into Belarus, Kaliningrad, and perhaps even into the Donbas region."
An F-35B from US Marine Corps Fighter Attack Squadron 121 at Iwakuni will remind China of its ability to do vertical landings and short takeoffs from islands and bases throughout the Indo-Pacific region.
The A-10 lives, it BRRTs, it lives again!
The Air Force intends to get rid of three of its four BACN-equipped EQ-4 Global Hawks, but increase the number of piloted E-11 BACN aircraft through 2026.
Balancing security and access to data are critical to providing users with trustworthy, reliable data for real-time decisions.
Toyko has put the breaks on its Aegis Ashore program, and there are reports its support for the Global Hawk buy may be soft.
The big defense contractors are looking at smaller, agile companies to push the envelope on AI, and developing the new 'Skyborg' brain.
The change would make available all Category I drones currently made by the US, including the long-loitering surveillance and armed systems which have played a key role in Washington’s counterterrorism fights.
"The Senate is saddling the service with unsupportable funding requirements," Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group says.
The military space sector is evolving fast. Get the latest from Space Force and industry officials on what’s next for acquisition, policy and training in a new Breaking Defense eBook.
The HASC tactical air and land forces subcommittee wants the Air Force to explain "how ABMS intends to transition demonstrated capabilities into sustainable Programs of Record."
"With only limited warning, Beijing or Moscow could exploit their time-distance advantage to seize allied territory before the United States and its allies could respond, thereby creating a fait accompli that would be difficult to reverse after the fact," CSBA finds.
Originally slated to deploy last year, the Triton drones will give US commanders in the Pacific a powerful new tool to conduct surveillance, and track Chinese moves from afar.
Both sides are claiming they stepped back from the edge over the past 24 hours, unwilling to see the loss of life. Tensions in the Gulf haven't diminished however.