US Air Force

Drones are becoming a mainstay in modern warfare. Now, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has countered the emerging threat of drone swarms, using the Tactical High-power Operational Responder (THOR) to take out multiple targets.

Northrop Grumman's Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS), which combines multiple current air and missile defense command and control systems into one, has been granted initial operational capability. This means it can begin active deployment.

The options for a practical hypersonic missile for the US have narrowed to one after Assistant Secretary of the Air Force Andrew P. Hunter revealed that the Department of Defense is cancelling Lockheed Martin's ARRW (AGM-183A) program.

In a teaser ahead of its first flight later this year, the US Air Force has released two new images of its B-21 Raider nuclear stealth bomber that provide new insights into the highly-classified US$692-million aircraft's design and capabilities.

Northrop Grumman has successfully completed the first full-scale static test fire of the first-stage solid-rocket motor for the LGM-35A Sentinel that will replace the US Air Force's Minuteman III nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The US Air Force has awarded Boeing a US$1.2-billion contract to develop new variants of the company's E-7 Airborne Early Warning & Control (AEW&C) aircraft to replace America's Cold War fleet of 31 E-3 Sentry AWACS early warning aircraft.

At NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, Rolls-Royce has begun testing of the F130 jet dual-engine pods that will power the US Air Force's B-52H Stratofortress heavy bomber fleet for the remainder of its service life into the 2050s.

A Lockheed Martin fighter jet trainer called the VISTA X-62A has become the first tactical aircraft to be controlled by artificial intelligence, taking to the air for over 17 hours during a test flight from Edwards Air Force Base in California.

With an eye to taking autonomous flight to the next level, the US Air Force has awarded a contract to study how to turn multi-engine transport jets into robotic aircraft that can handle all aspects of a flight by themselves, from taxi to landing.

A DARPA-led project has successfully completed the final test of Lockheed Martin's Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) missile. Powered by an Aerojet Rocketdyne scramjet, the craft reached a speed in excess of Mach 5 over a course 300 nm.

Atlanta company Hermeus has its sights set on Mach 4 next year, to beat the Mach 3.3 benchmark set by the SR-71 Blackbird way back in 1976. Watch its Chimera hybrid engine nailing the switch between low-speed turbojet mode and hypersonic ramjet mode.

As the world's major powers continue their never-ending arms race into the hypersonic age, the US Air Force has set Leidos to work on a large air-breathing hypersonic drone capable of handling intelligence, recon, surveillance and strike missions.