MilitaryRolls-Royce: F130 Engine for B-52 Passes CDR Rolls-Royce said on Friday that its F130 engine passed a U.S. Air Force Critical Design Review (CDR)–a step “clearing the way for final development, test, and production efforts to proceed and taking…
MilitaryCCA Challenge: Accommodating Sensor Processing to Meet Size, Weight, Power, Cost Goals The U.S. Air Force’s future Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) may need a significant amount of processing power for sensors and mission autonomy, and the service and industry thus face a challenge of…
AI & AutonomyAutonomous KC-135 Flight Testing May Begin Next Year Flight testing of an autonomous KC-135 Stratotanker may begin next year. Boston’s Merlin Labs, Inc. and the U.S. Air Force’s 6th Air Refueling Wing at MacDill AFB, Fla., have been testing the…
AI & AutonomyGeneral Atomics-BAE Systems Aim to Demonstrate Autonomous EW for CCA General Atomics‘ Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) subsidiary and BAE Systems said that they are teaming to demonstrate autonomous electronic warfare (EW) systems that the companies believe could one day go on U.S.…
AI & AutonomyLeonardo’s BriteStorm May Be Future CCA Payload The U.S. Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft program may be a fit for a five and a half pound BriteStorm stand-in jammer that Leonardo said that it is developing to allow the…
MilitaryRTX’s Pratt & Whitney Receives $1.3 Billion F135 Engine Core Upgrade Contract - Oct. 1 RTX‘s Pratt & Whitney has received a more than $1.3 billion cost plus incentive fee contract for the F135 Engine Core Upgrade (ECU) for the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter, DoD said on…
MilitaryUSAF Building New Site for Testing B-2 Flight Component RCS and Antenna Calibration By September next year, the U.S. Air Force is to establish a new Composite Aircraft Antenna Calibration Facility (CAACF) at Hill AFB, Utah for testing flight components’ radar cross section (RCS) and…
AI & AutonomyU.S. Air Force Trials Autonomous Flights with Joby, Reliable Robotics - AIN, Aug. 26 Joby and Reliable Robotics demonstrated military uses for their remotely piloted Cessna Grand Caravans during the Air Force Agile Flag 24-3 exercise in early August, AIN reported. The service’s Afwerx innovation unit…
MilitaryLockheed Martin Awarded $5.1 Billion in F-35 Contracts Lockheed Martin is receiving $5.1 billion in three contracts for the F-35 Lightning II fighter, including Block 4 related upgrades, DoD said on Aug. 28. The largest contract–$3.9 billion through September 2028–is…
MilitaryUSAF Awards RTX F-22 Sensor Upgrade Contract Possibly Worth More Than $1 Billion While the U.S. Air Force’s manned Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter has an uncertain future, the service is moving forward with upgrading sensors on the Lockheed Martin F-22. On Aug. 29,…