B-21

By Brian Everstine
The service is looking at 15% budget increases per year. But if Congress does not pass an appropriations bill, that expected growth will be on hold.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Steve Trimble, Tony Osborne, Brian Everstine
An ongoing software problem haunts Lockheed Martin’s production and modernization agenda for the F-35 as a raft of new competitors hit key milestones in 2024.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Guy Norris, Steve Trimble
A new book takes the wraps off the secret flight-test history of the facility in the Nevada Test and Training Range like no one ever has before. Listen in to hear from author Peter Merlin.
Check 6

By Steve Trimble
The timing and quality of the Raider’s second sortie may be at least as significant for the secretive U.S. Air Force program as the first, if not more.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Graham Warwick
Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Brian Everstine
The bomber’s public first flight kicks off an intensive test campaign and more funding for Northrop Grumman.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Brian Everstine
Video confirms the flying-wing aircraft has a simple W-shape trailing edge and reveals an extremely clean design with an almost featureless underside.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Brian Everstine
The Pentagon wants to build a new nuclear gravity bomb, aiming to modernize part of its strategic stockpile by replacing one of the most potent variants of its B61.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Steve Trimble, Brian Everstine
The start of moving ground tests for the Northrop Grumman B-21 provides another milestone on the path to a scheduled first flight by the end of this year.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Brian Everstine
The Pentagon’s nuclear posture is not capable of deterring both China and Russia simultaneously, a new report says.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Graham Warwick
Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.
Aerospace

By Jen DiMascio, Brian Everstine, Garrett Reim
Northrop Grumman is starting tests on the next stealth bomber, while industry is floating multiple concepts for collaborative combat aircraft.
Check 6

By Brian Everstine
The U.S. Air Force is giving the public new peeks at its secretive B-21 Raider bomber.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble
The digital transfer to the aircraft from the B-2’s Advanced Communications ground station automates a function that required crews to manually input the data.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Brian Everstine
The service is evaluating the Boeing-developed Load Adaptable Modular (LAM) pylon.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Jen DiMascio, Steve Trimble, Michael Bruno
Editors discuss Northrop's exit from the U.S. Air Force’s competition to replace the F-22 and the implications of L3Harris’ acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne.
Check 6

By Steve Trimble
Nearly all schedule details about the B-21 Raider are classified, but the U.S. Air Force and Northrop Grumman have now provided four completed milestones.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Brian Everstine
The Senate Appropriations Committee on July 27 approved its $831.8 million defense spending bill for 2024.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Steve Trimble
Northrop's move leaves Boeing and Lockheed Martin as the likely surviving bidders for the fighter at the heart of the Next Generation Air Dominance program.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Brian Everstine
The service seeks shift from one-for-one replacement of KC-135s and C-17s to a series of aircraft, from the basic to the exquisite.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Steve Trimble
Construction at Dyess Air Force Base is set to begin in fiscal 2025, opening a 10-year, $1 billion facility upgrade at the Texas site.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Richard Aboulafia
The companies, services and people dependent on today’s promising new generation of aircraft would do well to heed the lessons of the past.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Brian Everstine
The reported freeze in Pentagon funding to 2022 appropriated levels was reported in January.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Steve Trimble
U.S. Air Force officials have not backed off predictions of a first flight coming later this year, but certain conditions and a note of doubt have creeped in.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Brian Everstine
The U.S. Air Force will see its spending increase dramatically in nuclear modernization over the next five years.
Budget, Policy & Operations