US Air Force

The cutting-edge future is meeting the over-engineered past as Lockheed Martin is awarded a US$694-million contract by the US Air Force to move the company's AGM-183A hypersonic missile to production for arming the vintage Cold War B-52 bomber.

Many a shipwrecked sailor has wished that a survival kit complete with liferaft would drop from the sky. Now, the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has completed a test using an orbital SpaceX Starfall reentry capsule to do just that.

General Atomics has unveiled its proposal for the next generation of Medium-Altitude, Long-Endurance (MALE) drones in the form of its Wildfire Uncrewed Aircraft System (UAS), a lower-cost, high-volume counterpart to the venerable MQ-9 Reaper.

Autonomous air combat reached a major milestone in the skies over Edwards Air Force Base, California, as the X-62A VISTA test aircraft carried out full AI air intercept missions using live sensor data rather than simulated feeds.

In a US first, the US Air Force has successfully fired a missile from a Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) Loyal Wingman. Conducted in collaboration with Anduril Industries, the YFQ-44A drone launched an AIM-120 missile at a digital target.

The United States military is plunging into the robotic future of aerial warfare with both feet as awards are issued to General Atomics and Anduril for not just the development, but the mass production of hundreds of autonomous combat aircraft.

In another illustration of how defense programs are being fast-tracked, the US Air Force has, for the first time, placed an operational pilot alongside a test pilot early in the flight-testing program for the B-21 Raider nuclear bomber.

When you have a new ICBM, you need a place to keep it, so Northrop Grumman is building a prototype silo for the US Air Force to house its next-generation LGM-35A Sentinel nuclear missile that will replace the Cold War Minuteman III.

The legendary Cold War-era Lockheed U-2 Dragon Lady spyplane is getting a new lease on life as BAE Systems gives it an upgraded version of the AN/ALQ-221 Advanced Defensive System (ADS) to protect the aircraft against modern radar and electronic warfare threats.

The US Air Force is stomping on the accelerator to field advanced hypersonic missiles as the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and Ursa Major announce the successful completion of a flight test of the mass-producible Draper liquid rocket engine.

In what may be a hint of things to come or a subtle act of disinformation, Pratt & Whitney has released a video possibly featuring a tantalizing new image of the Boeing F-47 sixth-generation fighter plane being developed for the US Air Force to replace the F-22.

In a world first, the US Department of Defense (aka the Department of War) airlifted a complete 5-MW nuclear reactor using a C-17 Globemaster III transport from March Air Reserve Base, California to Hill Air Force Base, Utah, for assembly and operation.