Air Dominance

The U.S. Air Force has awarded Boeing a $1.6 billion contract modification for 12 KC-46A tanker aircraft and anticipates the work will wrap up in April 2023.

The sources sought notice asked interested companies to supply a wide range of information, such as a rough order of magnitude estimate for the cost and schedule of developing and delivering up 8,000 missiles.

The combined package worth nearly $23.4 billion still needs to be approved by Congress, where some lawmakers have already voiced objections.

U.S. Chief of Space Operations Gen. John Raymond has focused the Space Force’s inaugural year on investing in resiliency, building next-generation capabilities and the establishment of a Space Warfighting Analysis Center.

SDA director Derek Tournear joins Aviation Week editors on Check 6 to discuss how its system of space tracking and transport satellites will revolutionize the U.S. military and the challenges it will face along the way.

Seven years after the demise of the X-51 program, the Pentagon puts Boeing back in the running for hypersonic cruise missile programs.

Bell is looking to technology from its Model 360 Invictus as a potential template for a medium-size single-engine utility platform.

Future trainer could tutor pilots for European Future Combat Air System.

Ask the Editors: A failed joint venture around the C-390 has left doubt about future collaboration between Boeing and Embraer.

Two U.S. Army missile programs led by Lockheed Martin are set to enter another round of critical flight tests.

Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy’s remarks during a keynote speech at the Association of the U.S. Army’s virtual annual meeting appear to confirm the previously unannounced accuracy results from the Flight Experiment (FE)-2 test.

Hypersonic Production Accelerator Facility would dramatically cut costs and schedule for scramjet propulsion, study says.

The new liquid-propellant weapon appeared to be an enlargement of North Korea’s previous ICBM, Hwasong 15, which implicitly has insufficient payload-range capability for all of North Korea’s purposes.

Ask the Editors: U.S. Air Force and NATO officials have discussed replacing E-3s using a distributed systems approach, but options are not fully developed.

The Army’s next scout aircraft will be an air-launched effect that could enter service six years before the FARA.

Ask the Editors: Software has made great strides, but pilots are still needed to handle complex missions in the real world.

Narrow approval clears way for Switzerland to replace F/A-18 Hornets and F-5 Tigers starting in the mid-2020s.

Ask the Editors: MRO activity is down due to the outbreak of COVID-19, but the military segment has been spared the brunt of the blow.

How a massive budget cut, a DARPA program and a lengthy internal debate transformed the NGAD program.

Ask the Editors: Boeing cannot use the KDC-10 Tanker Remote Vision System because it does not meet Air Force tech specs for the KC-46.

The company that invented the unmanned hunter-killer mission unveils a concept for the legendary MQ-9’s replacement.

British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has hinted that the UK’s future combat air system initiative, Tempest, could be one of the winners in the government’s Integrated Review of defense and foreign policy.

The UAV concept Grom joins a growing number of Russian UAVs now in production or in development.

A year-old proposal to reform the U.S. Air Force fighter pilot training pipeline is restructuring its acquisition approach again.

Ask the Editors: Minimizing an aircraft’s cross-section is not necessary for all missions, and many weapons can be carried internally.