Airforce

The Defense Innovation Unit announced Feb. 14 it has selected 37 systems and components to add to its list of commercial drone capabilities certified for military use, pending final approvals to ensure they meet congressionally mandated cybersecurity and supply chain standards.
DIU in November staged a three-day flight demonstration at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms in California. Following the event, the department selected 23 systems as well as 14 unique drone components, which are now in the midst of a months-long cybersecurity verification process.
Once completed, the approved drones will be added to DIU’s Blue Unmanned Aircraft Systems, or UAS, List and the components to its Blue UAS Framework, making them available for the military services to buy.
“Advocacy for many of these new and enabling technologies continues to be critical for getting capabilities to the warfighter,” DIU said in a statement. “With the cycle for development of new c..

A U.S. Army Black Hawk crew may not have heard critical air traffic control messages instructing it to fly behind the commercial regional jet it ultimately collided with midair at Reagan National Airport in Washington on Jan. 29, the National Transportation Safety Board said Friday.
Additionally, the helicopter crew may have received inaccurate altitude data inside the cockpit, NTSB officials said at a media briefing at NTSB headquarters about the ongoing investigation.
The on-scene investigation of the collision of the American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas, and a UH-60 on a flight over the Potomac River has concluded, Jennifer Homendy, NTSB chair, said. The investigation will continue off-site in various labs and other secure locations.
No survivors in passenger jet-Army helicopter crash near DC: Officials
When the aircraft collided, the fuselage of the commercial jet broke apart in three places and was discovered inverted in waist-deep water in the Potomac. The helicopter wre..

The Air Force conducted a test launch of an unarmed Minuteman III missile early Wednesday to help ensure its land-based nuclear force still operates safely and effectively.
Airmen from Air Force Global Strike Command launched the intercontinental ballistic missile from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 1 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, the department said. The Minuteman missile carried no nuclear payload but was instead equipped with a test re-entry vehicle that was designed to transmit readings.
The missile flew about 4,200 miles at speeds of more than 15,000 mph to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site at the Marshal Islands’ Kwajalein Atoll. Personnel at the test site, which is run by Army Space and Missile Defense Command, collected radar, optical and telemetry data as the missile closed in, to measure how well it worked.
“Today’s Minuteman III test launch is just one of the ways the Department of the Air Force demonstrates the readiness, pr..

The two proposed engines that might one day power a sixth-generation U.S. Air Force fighter have passed an important design review, defense firms announced this week.
And with the detailed design reviews for GE Aerospace’s XA102 and Pratt & Whitney’s XA103 now complete, the companies are moving forward to build prototype demonstration engines to prove they will work.
The XA102 and XA103 are GE’s and Pratt’s pitch for the Air Force’s Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion program, which is intended to be the propulsion system for the crewed fighter portion of the Next Generation Air Dominance, or NGAD, family of systems.
Both engines use adaptive technologies that would allow an NGAD aircraft to adjust to the ideal thrust configuration for its situation, providing greater range and thermal management capability than traditional engines. That technology was considered for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, but the Pentagon ultimately chose to upgrade the F-35&prime..

President Donald Trump on Feb. 21 fired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti and Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Jim Slife.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement that Trump plans to nominate retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan Caine, who joined the venture capital firm Shield Capital in January, as the nation’s next chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
“General Caine embodies the warfighter ethos and is exactly the leader we need to meet the moment,” Hegseth said. “I look forward to working with him.”
No replacements for Franchetti — the first woman to serve as a service chief — or Slife were announced. Hegseth said he is requesting nominations to fill their roles.
Franchetti and Slife “have had distinguished careers,” Hegseth said. “We thank them for their service and dedication to our country.”
Franchetti made history in 2023 when she was confirmed as t..

BENGALURU, India — The cream of the U.S. and Russian air forces shared a runway at the recent Aero India 2025 exhibition in Bengaluru, as both the Lockheed Martin F-35A and Sukhoi Su-57E attempted to woo the Indian Air Force towards an unlikely deal.
Emanating from opposing blocs, the surprising juxtaposition of these latest fifth-generation fighters at Aero India, held here Feb. 10-14, illustrates India’s non-aligned stance. Historically, Delhi has relied on Russia for military equipment, though the U.S. has made significant inroads into the market in recent years.
The latest competitive jostling surrounds fifth-generation fighters. A Rosoboronexport official said India could manufacture the Su-57 at home with full technology transfer. Russia’s defense export agency said it has held informal talks with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) on the subject, and believes the Su-57 could be built at HAL’s Nasik facility where Su-30MKI jets are currently assembled.
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The Air Force wants to accelerate its plans to retire old and outdated aircraft to meet Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s order for services to cut and reallocate a portion of their spending.
But the service’s previous efforts to cut planes like the A-10 Warthog and older F-22 Raptors have shown that making such plans is easy, while actually seeing them through is far trickier.
That is because lawmakers who have the power to block cuts they disagree with, or which they fear may harm their constituents, have stymied multiple administrations’ efforts to tame and reshape Pentagon budgets.
If the Trump administration — with its focus on cutting perceived government waste — is able to break through the logjam on Capitol Hill and enact significant reductions to the Air Force’s legacy fleet, it will have accomplished something that has eluded previous administrations.
Hegseth last week ordered military leaders to draw up plans to free up 8% of the fiscal 2026 budg..

An Air Force two-star general warned Wednesday that potential 8% cuts to the service’s budget would be “painful.”
But Maj. Gen. Joseph Kunkel, the service’s director for force design, integration and wargaming, expressed hope that the Air Force could still receive additional funding for its top priorities, citing its alignment with the Trump administration’s focus on lethality and deterrence and the potential for redirected funding from cost-cutting measures outside the service.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week ordered services to review their budgets and find 8% of planned fiscal 2026 spending that could be redirected from noncrucial programs toward efforts that make the military more effective. The Air Force has said one avenue it plans to pursue to meet these goals is accelerating its retirement of older and outdated aircraft.
Kunkel said Wednesday that with the Air Force now smaller and older than at any other time in its nearly 80-year history, “there&rsq..