CENTER FOR STRATEGIC & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: The Air Force threw out two big numbers this week, but one of Washington’s leading budget analysts doesn’t think either of them is credible. One is the service’s unsolicited estimate that President Trump’s plan to create an independent Space Force – largely carved out of the Air Force –… Keep reading →

“We’re looking at airframes of the future that will have common cockpits, advanced propulsion systems, (and) signature management,” Miller said. The goal “really is understanding (how) to modify or build an airplane that allows us to operate through that threat environment.”

It began in low voices behind closed doors but some days ago the battle for US military aid turned to open war. The first skirmish is being fought over the Israeli Air Force’s (IAF) advanced aerial refueling aircraft meant to replace its aging converted Boeing 707s.

We will probably never know much about it, but the Air Force’s top Electronic Warfare task force has completed its first scrub and should report to top service leaders in the next month or so.

As the Boeing tanker continues to see delays and cost overruns, the Air Force is airing its complaints.

Air Force Chief of Staff David Goldfein leads perhaps the most ground-down service in the Pentagon. The service grapples with how to modernize its planes, grant its crews some reprieve from the stresses of flying or maintaining and supporting planes and satellites and still keep the United States the one true global power. Read what Goldfein says he’s doing to keep the Air Force in fighting trim.

WASHINGTON: Air Mobility Command, an experienced observer of gaining FAA certification for civilian aircraft rebuilt for military purposes, is using its knowledge to try to lower the costs of the replacement for Air Force One. The head of AMC, Gen. Carlton Everhart, told me this afternoon they hoped to find “efficiencies” in the process of… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Gen. Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, told the Senate Armed Services Committee today that the White House had decided not to include aerial refueling as a capability for the next Air Force One fleet. Why? To save money. President Donald Trump has apparently made the decision, reflected by this decision and the… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: You’d think Boeing and the Air Force would have learned from Lockheed Martin’s experience with the F-35 and concurrency, which Vice Adm. James Venlet identified six years ago in our pages as a fundamental “miscalculation” in the Joint Strike Fighter program. The issue came to light Friday during a conversation about the KC-46 tanker… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: More testing, due next month, is needed before the Air Force knows whether the undetected banging of the KC-46 tanker’s refueling boom is a problem that needs fixing. Preliminary data indicates the banging (formally known as Undetected Contacts Outside The Receptacle –UCOTR) is happening more frequently than it does in the existing tanker fleet,… Keep reading →