Vanessa Montalbano

Defense manufacturing giant Boeing is again hemorrhaging money, but CEO Kelly Ortberg says the company can pivot back to prior success via better discipline in its "tough contracts" and a focus on risk management in future ones. “We’ve got some tough contracts and there’s no magic bullet to that,” Ortberg told investors in a third-quarter earnings call today. “The discipline about what we can control on those contracts needs to get better.” Boeing warned investors earlier this...

The Air Force wants to deploy low-collateral-effects interceptor technologies against small unmanned aerial systems in future battles, according to a request for information issued today.

Boeing unfairly charged the Air Force for 12 out of 46 C-17 Globemaster spare part items, including a 7,943% markup for lavatory soap dispensers, according to a report the Pentagon's inspector general released today. The audit determined the counter-mounted soap dispensers cost more than 80 times commercially available ones, leading the service to overpay $149,072 for the parts between fiscal years 2018 and 2022. The report redacted information about the unit price Boeing purchased the soap dispensers at and the...

The Space Force posted its annual request for National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 1 proposals, offering new companies the chance to enter the vendor pool for these launch services.

Year after year, long-term continuing resolutions have strangled the defense budgetary process, which Air Force officials say is exhausting time that could have been spent on advancing capabilities and blurring the service’s vision about what it might need to maintain superiority over the nation’s adversaries. It’s a “death by 1,000 cuts,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin said today. “If a CR happens for a month, it's a distraction and it hinders things a little bit. If it...

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and BAE Systems are working together to build autonomous electronic warfare functions for Collaborative Combat Aircraft, GA-ASI announced today. Through the partnership, BAE and GA-ASI remotely performed electronic attack capabilities in testing using an unmanned MQ-20 Avenger. That developmental aircraft has been used by GA-ASI to help create its concept for the Air Force’s CCA program and related autonomous mission systems research, according to the news release. “This effort featured novel mission system capabilities and...

The Air Force is focused on 13 technical research areas to get its munitions portfolio on par with advancements in air dominance, including advanced control actuation systems, autonomy and improved aircraft integration, according to a broad agency announcement the service posted today.

The Air Force today accepted Merlin’s airworthiness plan to add its autonomous pilot to an operational KC-135 Stratotanker, putting the project on track for ground testing, flight testing and other demonstrations in 2025, according to a company news release. “Achieving this milestone demonstrates that Merlin’s system engineering processes are consistent with the airworthiness standards set by the USAF, and allows Merlin to progress towards aircraft integration, design completion and testing operations,” the company stated. The airworthiness plan acceptance was...

The Collaborative Combat Aircraft designs created by Anduril Industries and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems have completed their critical design reviews, a top Air Force official said today. “We just finished up, basically, critical design review,” Col. Timothy Helfrich, a senior materiel leader in the program executive office for fighters and advanced aircraft in the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, said during the Mitchell Institute’s Airpower Futures Forum. “Both industry teammates are on the path to get to first flight...

The possible ascendance of Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) to the chairmanship of the Senate Armed Services Committee could be a turning point in Air Force modernization efforts as the ranking member has pushed for boosting the existing topline for national defense spending by billions of dollars to ensure legacy and new platforms can rule the air domain. The service has its sights set on building an expensive Next Generation Air Dominance family of systems, including several increments of unmanned jets...