Defense Systems

Air Force ISR aims for maximum insight

Agency strives to provide a full spectrum of ISR capabilities to meet strategic, tactical and combatant command requirements.

Defense Systems

Air Force ISR works to stay on top of evolving technologies

Lt. Gen. Larry James on the Air Force ISR's ever-evolving mission, the roles played by old and new technologies and the challenges AF ISR faces as it serves users on a rapidly changing global stage.

Defense Systems

Northrop receives $88M Global Hawk Block 30 support deal

Northrop Grumman has received a cost-plus, fixed-fee contract to furnish logistics support for the RQ-4 Global Hawk Block 30.

Defense Systems

AF IT Day: Gen. Shelton says service needs to refine its cyberspace mission

The Air Force still cannot define its role and responsibilities in cyberspace, despite stating for years that the domain was a zone of operations, says a top service official.

Defense Systems

Air Force, Northrop upgrade B-2 with EHF satcom subsystem

The Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a contract to outfit the service's fleet of B-2 bombers with new high-speed processing subsystems.

Defense Systems

AF IT Day: Lt. Gen. Basla says operational rules on horizon

The Air Force needs to work out what its missions and responsibilities are in cyberspace, a top service official said Oct. 11.

Defense Systems

Air Force launches third GPS Block IIF satellite

The Air Force successfully launched the third Global Positioning System IIF satellite on Oct. 4 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta IV-Medium rocket, the service said.

Defense Systems

Air Force wants better knowledge of high-altitude airborne LIDAR capabilities

The Air Force is seeking white papers that would help it determine the capabilities of industry to produce Airborne Light Detection and Ranging systems and products and determine a forward path for expanded use of the technology in tactical and strategic intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.

Defense Systems

AF to base first 'Space Fence' facility in Pacific

The Air Force will establish a Space Fence radar site on Kwajalein Island in the Republic of the Marshall Islands that will begin operating in fiscal 2017.

Defense Systems

Northrop wins Air Force contract for airborne comms node

The Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a contract modification to add beyond-line-of-sight command and control capabilities to the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node information gateway system.

Defense Systems

Air Force plans robust competition for small launches

The Air Force has decided that all of the bidders that applied for the Orbital/Suborbital Program-3 contract will be eligible to compete.

Defense Systems

Intel community must find more efficient ways to process data, says ISR chief

The entire intelligence community needs to find more efficient methods to process ISR data into decision-making information for joint warfighters, says Lt. Gen. Larry James.

Defense Systems

Next-gen GPS III satellites undergo first readiness test

The contractors that will deliver the Air Force’s next generation GPS III satellites report that they have finished the first launch readiness exercise on the road to achieving launch availability in 2014, Lockheed Martin said in a Sept. 5 news release.

Defense Systems

Cyber Command inches closer to unified command

The U.S. Cyber Command might become a unified combatant command in the foreseeable future.

Defense Systems

Air Force steps up cyber weapons development

The Air Force has issued a request for proposals for assistance with cyber weapons.

Defense Systems

Air Force presses surveillance satellite into full service

The Air Force said Aug. 20 that it would begin operational use of a new Boeing surveillance satellite designed to track debris and other satellites in space.

Defense Systems

Air Force adds UAVs to combat exercises

The Air Force has added MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicles to its top combat exercise as it prepares to experiment with news ways to conduct air campaigns in future years in contested air space.

Defense Systems

Air Force wants smart software for ISR analysis

The Air Force wants software that can help analysts identify targets from an unconnected patchwork of high-and-low resolution imagery data.

Defense Systems

Military services mull future of large UAVs

For manufacturers of large unmanned aerial vehicles, there was only a hazy picture of what direction that market will take at the recent Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International's Unmanned Systems North America 2012 conference.

Defense Systems

Air Force consolidates cyber/IT operations to improve performance

Maj. Gen. Craig Olson, PEO, Air Force Business and Enterprise Systems, on transition of the BES portfolio to his successor, and his new position as head of the Air Force's Command, Control and Communications Information and Networks program executive office.