US Air Force

The US Air Force's not-so-secret spaceplane has successfully launched on its sixth mission, OTV-6 (USSF 7). On May 17, 2020, at 13:14 GMT, the unmanned, autonomous spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral atop a specially modified Atlas V 501 rocket.

A secretive space plane developed by the US Air Force is being readied for another outing. Scheduled for May 16, the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle’s sixth mission will see a new emphasis placed on onboard experiments.

In a graphic display of self-confidence, Boeing T-7A Red Hawk trainer test pilots jets deliberately shut down the aircraft's single engine and restarted it 48 seconds later as part of a major in-flight safety test.

The jet-powered XQ-58A Valkyrie has returned to the air three months after being damaged in a landing mishap. The demonstrator is part of an effort to develop combat drones that can act independently or as escorts for F-22 or F-35 fighters.

The US Air Force has completed ground test firings at Cecil Spaceport in Jacksonville, Florida, of a new rocket designed to provide affordable access to hypersonic flight conditions to accelerate development of the technology.

The combined American armed forces recently used a new command and control technology to identify and defeat a simulated cruise missile attack on the United States by collecting, analyzing, and sharing large amounts of data in real-time.

Real-time information from NASA's SMAP spacecraft is being sent to the Air Force's Air Force HQ 557th Weather Wing to improve weather forecasts, warnings and advisories that are more relevant to military operations in all theaters.

Lockheed Martin's Advanced Test High Energy Asset (ATHENA) laser weapon, which is being developed for the US Air Force, engaged and destroyed multiple drone threats in a recent field test at a US government test range at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

The US Air Force has successfully tested a component that promises a new generation of high-performance American rocket engines. Called a preburner, the unit allows rockets to operate at a higher pressure and achieve greater levels of thrust.

The USAF's X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle Mission 5 has ended in a surprise pre-dawn landing after a record-breaking 780-day flight. Like the previous four missions, the exact purpose of the highly-classified unmanned spaceplane's flight was a secret, though the Air Force says that its general goals were "risk reduction, experimentation and concept of operations development for reusable space vehicle technologies," as well as the deployment of some small satellites.

The V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft fleet, which been in service with US forces since 2007, has racked up over 500,000 flight hours.

Lockheed Martin, the Missile Defense Agency and the USAF connected an F-35, U-2 spy-plane, and a ground station as part of a missile defense exercise.