Page 16 - Will Roper News Today

"Not sure if this is a black swan, but I would not be surprised if the next administration kicks off an internal review of the services’ roles and responsibilities, with an eye toward reducing excessive redundancy in force structure and capabilities," Mark Gunzinger says . By   Theresa Hitchens on December 28, 2020 at 1:55 PM Airmen install a new cable run on an aging Minuteman III missile. WASHINGTON: Budget. Budget. Budget. It’s the first word out of the mouths of analysts, former DoD...

Till today, aircraft systems that could make military aviation more accommodating for women and encourage more of them to stay in service are still designed around men. Photos: AFP As a helicopter pilot in Iraq in 2004, now-Senator Tammy Duckworth stopped drinking water hours before she climbed into the cockpit of her Army UH-60 Black Hawk for combat missions. Even in Iraq’s heat, she’d purposefully dehydrate herself because there was not a safe way for her to use the restroom in her one-p...

New in 2021: Advanced Battle Management System testing begins December 27, 2020 Tech. Sgt. John Rodiguez provides security with a Ghost Robotics Vision 60 prototype at a simulated austere base during the Advanced Battle Management System exercise on Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., Sept. 1, 2020. (Tech. Sgt. Cory D. Payne/Air Force) As early as March, the Air Force and Army could begin major experiments on their systems to allow aircraft, sensors and other weapons systems across services to sh...

U.S. Air Force’s Hypersonic Cruise Missile Fails in Test Our Bureau 5115 Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) illustration. The U.S. Air Force’s Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) experimental missile has reportedly failed during tests last week. In September, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced successful completion of captive carry tests of two variants of the HAWC, and said they were ready to proceed to first free-flight testing within the ...

McClatchy exclusively reported this summer that of the military’s 48,000 pilots, only 3,300 were women and only 72 were Black. There are a multitude of reasons, including that the services did not open up flying roles to women until in the 1970s and did not allow women to fly in combat until the 1990s. But even 25 years later, aircraft systems that could make military aviation more accommodating for women and encourage more of them to stay in service are still designed around men. That’s st...

By TARA COPP | MCCLATCHY WASHINGTON BUREAU Published: December 23, 2020 WASHINGTON (Tribune News Service) — As a helicopter pilot in Iraq in 2004, now-Sen. Tammy Duckworth stopped drinking water hours before she climbed into the cockpit of her Army UH-60 Black Hawk for combat missions. Even in Iraq’s heat, she’d purposefully dehydrate herself because there was not a safe way for her to use the restroom in her one-piece, zip-up flight suit. “I would have to take off my side arm. I w...

U.S. Air Force Air Force pilots in the not-so-distant future could fly and fight together like Luke Skywalker and R2-D2. One of the Air Force’s top officials is confident the service’s secret new fighter jet will have an artificial intelligence copilot. The AI could take over key tasks, flying and fighting the plane, to prevent the human pilot from being overwhelmed. The U.S. Air Forces secret new fighter jet, which it designed, built, and tested in just one year, will feature some kind ...

By MISSY RYAN | The Washington Post | Published: October 30, 2020 When Alexandra Jackson joined the West Virginia Air National Guard in 2018, she was looking forward to becoming a pilot with the 167th Airlift Wing, like her father. But at 5-foot-1, three inches shorter than the minimum standard, Jackson soon learned she would need a waiver to fly her units C-17 transport plane and one of the two trainer aircraft before that. Jackson applied for the waivers but was denied. "It was heartbreaki...

Formula 1 vehicle racing digital engineering practices inspire US Air Forces Roper by Pat Host The US Air Force’s (USAF’s) acquisition executive is drawing inspiration from a Formula 1 racing team’s digital engineering practices as he tries to apply these concepts to the service’s next-generation aircraft. Will Roper, USAF assistant secretary for acquisition, technology, and logistics (AT&L), said on 18 December that Formula 1 teams perform digital engineering across a racing season fro...

By   Barry Rosenberg on December 22, 2020 at 10:36 AM Northrop Grumman’s Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) gateway system reached 200,000 combat operational flight hours since its first deployment with the Air Force in 2008 In any potential “Great Power” conflict, the advantage will go to those military forces that can share information and operate together proactively and in real time across all domains. Observing, orienting, deciding, and acting faster with greater prec...