The Air & Space Brief: B-21 first flight delays; Raytheon moving to D.C.; C-17 crews honored

Welcome to the Defense One Air and Space newsletter. Here are our top stories this week:  

Raytheon Technologies will move its headquarters from Boston's suburbs to Washington, D.C.'s this fall, putting all of the five largest defense companies in the National Capital Region. The offices will be in the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington, Va., just across the Potomac River from Washington and within sight of the Pentagon, Defense One’s Marcus Weisgerber reports. “The location increases agility in supporting U.S. government and commercial customers and serves to reinforce partnerships that will progress innovative technologies to advance the industry,” the company said in a statement. 

B-21 First Flight: The B-21 stealth bomber program is still ahead of schedule even though its first flight will slip to 2023, according to Northrop Grumman CEO Kathy Warden. Though the aircraft was originally supposed to make its first flight in 2022, the overall program is still on schedule, Warden said. “There's a bit of a misconception and it's understandable, but it needs reconciling,” she said Thursday at a Bernstein investors conference in New York. “We are still ahead of the acquisition program baseline date for first flight on the B-21.”

DFCs for Kabul valor: Seven airmen from the 105th Airlift Wing, New York National Guard were honored with the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal with a V device for valor for their actions during the Kabul evacuation last August. Just hours after the Taliban took Kabul, the crew landed at the airfield despite dangerous crowds, Taliban control, and small arms fire to deliver a Special Operations Aviation Regiment MH-47 Chinook helicopter and 22 troops  to aid the operation. The same crew would return again and again to Kabul, most notably to carry out the 13 service members killed during the bombing attack on the airfield Aug. 26. 

NIST guide: The National Institute of Standards and Technology should develop a guide for organizations to assess the risk they’re associating with systems when deciding what security controls to implement for their protection, according to the Defense Department. The framework to determine risk “depends on measuring, or assessing risk, but [avoids] alignment to the NIST standard commonly used to assess cybersecurity risks,” Michele Iversen, director of risk assessment and operational integration at DOD’s chief information office for cybersecurity, wrote in response to a request for information.

Sign up to get The Air & Space Brief every Tuesday from Tara Copp, Defense One’s Senior Pentagon Reporter. On June 7, 1937, Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan completed a 1,961-mile South Atlantic crossing leg during their attempt to circumnavigate the globe. The pair would be declared dead a month later when their plane was reported lost at sea over the Pacific. 

From Defense One

Raytheon Technologies to Move HQ from Massachusetts to Northern Virginia // Marcus Weisgerber

The move means the five largest defense contractors will all call the D.C. region home.

B-21's First Flight Slips to 2023, But That's Still Ahead of Schedule, Northrop CEO Says // Marcus Weisgerber

The classified bomber was initially expected to fly last December.

Tell Everyone How to Measure Cyber Risk, DOD Begs NIST // Mariam Baksh

Gaps in an 8-year-old standard are creating potentially dangerous mismatches between departments and agencies.