Michael Marrow covers air warfare for Breaking Defense. He holds a BA in history from the University of Virginia and started out as a freelance reporter covering local news in Fairfax County, Virginia and policing in Charlottesville, Virginia. Michael previously reported on the Air Force and Space Force for Inside Defense, where he tracked major acquisitions, policy changes and modernization efforts.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall last year said the service was “more committed” to the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile than the service’s other fast-flying design, the Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon.
Air Force acquisition chief Andrew Hunter noted potential troubles ahead for the KC-46A and said T-7A production could start “a little later” than previously anticipated, but he remained confident about the way forward for the two aircraft.
“It’s just about the overall budget of the Air Force and what we’re able to afford and what we’re not able to afford,” explained Air Force acquisition chief Andrew Hunter of the decision to cut the birds.
“Now that we understand that 80 kilowatts is a must-have, it was the mission of: how do we get there, with the lowest impact to the overall airframe?” Honeywell Aerospace’s Matt Milas told Breaking Defense in an exclusive interview.
Across the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, the Pentagon will purchase 21 fewer fighter jets than originally expected for the 2025 fiscal year, dropping a planned buy of 107 to 86.
“We’re very, very fixated on being competitive with the pacing challenge [of China],” said Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall. “I think the budget that we’ve submitted moves us forward — not quite as fast as we would like to, but it moves us forward in the right direction while maintaining current capabilities that are essential to the nation.”
Pentagon officials say they have “high confidence” that they can return the V-22 Ospreys to flight safely, but are tight lipped on what they learned about the cause of a crash in Japan that killed eight airmen.
Despite disagreements with Boeing on pricing for the E-7A Wedgetail, Air Force acquisition chief Andrew Hunter said officials still see the radar plane “as a capability that makes sense and that we need to field in the near term.”
With apparent frustration with another program, Space Force acquisition chief Frank Calvelli asked, “What I don’t get… [is] why would somebody want to have this sort of reputation-ruining stain in the papers all the time?”
“We need a budget to be able to continue to fund this,” said Space Development Agency Director Derek Tournear. “We always assume there will be a continuing resolution for a few months, but not six to 12.”
High-performance systems generate tremendous amounts of heat that can compromise missions and make high-tech systems less effective in tactical environments. But there is a solution to this modern-age challenge.
High-performance systems generate tremendous amounts of heat that can compromise missions and make high-tech systems less effective in tactical environments. But there is a solution to this modern-age challenge.
DoD uses FAR Part 12 acquisitions to save hundreds of millions of dollars in “of a type” systems like civil landing systems with applicability to military aircraft.
DoD uses FAR Part 12 acquisitions to save hundreds of millions of dollars in “of a type” systems like civil landing systems with applicability to military aircraft.
