A major overhaul is coming in software for missile warning
Space Systems Command’s FORGE program is the first, major missile-warning software modernization effort in 20 years.
WASHINGTON: The authoritative Congressional Research Service has just published a report asking the questions in the headline. It;’s a basic problem we’ve written about before. The Air Force faces a funding crunch in the next six years as the F-35 and the tanker programs ramp up. the B-3 (Long Range Strike Bomber) program gets rolling and the service…
By Colin Clark
ORLANDO: More than half-way into his tenure as Air Force Chief of staff, Gen. Mark Welsh has shifted focus from the service’s airmen to its weapons, declaring today that “we must modernize the Air Force. This isn’t optional. We must do it. And It will be painful because we will have to make hard choices.” Welsh’s speech…
By Colin Clark
WASHINGTON: While Northrop Grumman isn’t doing much at the upcoming Farnborough Air Show — at least publicly — they certainly shook things up today with their announcement that they are swapping places with BAE Systems to take the lead role in the competition for the $11 billion, 350-plane T-X trainer program. While the BAE-Northrop team…
By Colin Clark
UPDATED: Adds Secretary James’ Comments On CRH PENTAGON: In a dramatic last-minute budget decision, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James today approved the long-delayed purchase of a Combat Rescue Helicopter (CRH). The announcement was slipped into today’s Air Force budget briefing by Maj. Gen. James Martin, Air Force budget director. Martin said he was told…
By Colin Clark
WASHINGTON: Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter, Democratic Party stalwart, plans to leave the Defense Department after more than six years there, opening the way for his boss to pick his own deputy. There have long been rumors that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Carter did not mesh well and Carter’s visibility has slipped considerably since…
By Colin Clark
PARIS AIR SHOW: It is one of the hottest competitions for which there is not yet a formal Pentagon program. The Air Force’s next generation trainer — known as T-X — will be worth some $11 billion for some 350 planes. Lockheed Martin and the South Korean maker of the T-50 have teamed up to…
By Colin Clark
Modernizing our supply chain is a national security imperative
Closing supply chain gaps in innovating technology will reposition the industrial base to be a strategic source of value.
Paris: Boeing’s military aircraft business expects its international sales to grow by some 5 percent over the next five to seven years, president Chris Chadwick told Breaking Defense. He said Boeing sees “about a five- to seven-year window of opportunity that only comes along once in a while in the international arena.” Most of that…
By Colin Clark
The Senate Armed Services Committee approved the nomination of the new Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. David Goldfein, today by voice vote. He is almost certain to get full Senate approval soon. This will round out the rare and noteworthy turnover of the entire slate of Joint Chiefs over the past year, including the National…
By Mackenzie Eaglen