One of the key challenges for tracking enemy aircraft from space is that airplanes and drones move much faster than tanks, trucks and ships; confounded by the fact that satellites themselves also move around the Earth extremely fast.
Under the Science and Technology Applied RF Systems program, estimated to cost a total of nearly $95 million over six years, AFRL is looking to award up to three indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts.
It’s about improving existing platforms with autonomy, and applying AI, edge computing, quantum encryption, and sensor fusion.
In likely her last interview in the job, Kristyn Jones reveals a few lessons-learned from the embattled Sentinel ICBM development program.
“We think we can substantially improve over what Boeing offered us. I would say we will not meet in the middle,” said Air Force acquisition czar Andrew Hunter.
“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.
On the two year anniversary of the war, the Breaking Defense team has assembled a series of pieces on the state of the conflict across multiple domains, what might come in year three, and what lessons the US has learned from the conflict.
With potential adversaries no longer predictable, training must move beyond just live exercises and flight simulators.
Negotiations with the US Air Force over the cost of the E-7 Wedgetail are still ongoing, a Boeing executive confirmed at the Singapore Airshow.
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.
NATO's decision to procure six Wedgetails gives another victory on the global market to Boeing's surveillance aircraft.
Though the UK will get three planes instead of five, the procurement report estimates that the E-7 program will cost $2.5 billion, only marginally less costly than the $2.7 billion agreed in the original order.
Protecting warfighters requires fast, accurate, and dependable systems that work flawlessly to military standards.
Through its open systems architecture and agile software development, the E-7 provides rapid, affordable capability growth to remain a critical asset as threats evolve.
"I think I'm pretty comfortable with where we are on the [fiscal 2024] budget. I think we'll have a good story to tell,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told Breaking Defense in a recent interview.
“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.”
The Air Force can't wait when it comes to modernizing command and control, writes the Mitchell Institute's Douglas Birkey.