2021 Appropriations News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

By   Paul McLeary on February 17, 2021 at 2:07 PM A Beechcraft AT-6 Wolverine conducts austere runway operations in 2020 WASHINGTON: Despite skepticism in Congress, Air Force Special Operations Command will launch a series of demonstration flights of it’s much-anticipated Armed Overwatch aircraft this year, hoping lawmakers see the value in a light, deadly airplane aimed at counterterrorism missions.  Several different aircraft will go through testing with an eye toward buying one of them in 2022, AFSOC commander Lt. Gen. James Slife said Tuesday. “I think we can do that at relatively...

By   Theresa Hitchens on January 26, 2021 at 5:01 PM EQ-4 Global Hawk modified to carry the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) WASHINGTON: Northrop Grumman’s new IDIQ contract, worth up to $3.6 billion, to support the Air Force’s Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) E-11A and EQ-4B aircraft guarantees operations through 2026. While the Air Force is already moving to field new capabilities developed under the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) to replace BACN, the award suggests that this won’t be completed until 2027 at the earliest. BACN is a gateway an...

By   Theresa Hitchens on January 14, 2021 at 4:14 PM F-35 WASHINGTON: The F-35 fighter jet’s exorbitant life-cycle costs means the Air Force cannot afford to buy as many aircraft as it needs to fight and win a war today, which makes the Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program all the more important, says outgoing Air Force acquisition czar Will Roper. “I think the F-35 program is a long way from being at a sustainment point that we need. I think it’s a long way from being an affordable fighter that we can buy in bulk,” he told reporters today. “That’s the reason why Next-G...

By   Colin Clark on December 23, 2020 at 6:00 AM WASHINGTON: The most overlooked story of 2020, including by this publication, is that having a president, Donald Trump, largely divorced from making military decisions worked pretty well for the US military. What do I mean? President Trump loved to point to “my generals” as if this marked some special genius on his part (many senators might not agree about to whom they belong) but he appeared to exercise a very light touch on the vast majority of important military decisions, especially budgetary ones. He rarely weighed in on operational...