The air and missile defense world is changing fast, with new concepts being developed and tried in operations around the world. We cover all the latest with Dr. Tom Karako, Director of the Air and Missile Defense program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Plus, did Boeing win F/A-XX… by a nose? Powered by GE Aerospace!
Missiles and drones (slow missiles) put the bang in airpower. But given how many we used in Iran, what would U.S. magazines have to look like to, say, defend Taiwan from the Chinese? Dr. Stacie Pettyjohn and Phil Sheers of the Center for a New American Security answered that question, and we get into the details. Plus: The Navy gets a new FAXX machine. Powered by GE Aerospace!
One of the biggest headlines coming out of last week’s Air, Space, Cyber conference was a deal in which hypersonic airplane company Hermeus would build Pratt & Whitney F100 fighter engines. So we brought back Hermeus’s executive chairman, AJ Piplica, to explain how this happened and why it’s happening, along with what else is new at their company. Plus: Do you know where your F-35 canopy is? Powered by GE Aerospace!
If you missed the Air and Space Forces Association’s Air, Space, Cyber conference outside Washington DC (or even if you didn’t!), this is your show. By turns rollicking, feisty, and thoughtful, Laura Winter of the Downlink podcast; Tobias Naegele of Air and Space Forces magazine; and retired Lieutenant General Dave Deptula, Dean of The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies join us to review the conference, including space weapons, CCAs, budgets, and more. Plus we have the week’s top airpower headlines. Powered by GE Aerospace!
On today’s program, sponsored by GE Aerospace, Gen. Ken “Cruiser” Wilsbach, the 24th chief of staff of the US Air Force, joins Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian to discuss his priorities, lessons from the Ukraine and Iran wars that are shaping air power; Chinese, Russian, Iranian and North Korean capabilities that are shaping how the Air Force plans, operates, trains and equips; whether the service has sufficient margin to deter China and if necessary defeat it given concerns about weapon stocks; what kind of long-range strike and anti-air weapons the force will need to “outstick” adversaries; integration of short, medium and long-range unmanned systems; what happens if lawmakers don’t approve the service’s spending request; and whether airmen need the kind of nuclear training they received during the Cold War as the force presses ahead with modernizing its nuclear forces.
General Chuck Horner was the air component commander for one of airpower’s defining campaigns, Operation Desert Storm. He’s the subject of a new biography by noted airpower writer Dr. John Andreas Olsen, who joins us to review General Horner’s career. Plus a preview of the Air and Space Forces Association Air, Space, Cyber conference with Air and Space Forces magazine editor Tobias Naegele. And we have the week’s top airpower headlines. Powered by GE Aerospace!
Stratolaunch is known for building and operating the biggest airplane in the world, the Roc, that carries launch vehicles to the upper atmosphere. But the company is increasingly turning to defense projects, with a big emphasis on hypersonics. President and CEO Dr. Zachary Krevor joins us to illuminate this emerging company. Plus we have the week’s top airpower headlines. Powered by GE Aerospace!
Even as current conflicts emphasize lower-technology systems like small drones, development continues on high-end technologies. Hypersonics, directed energy, advanced missiles, and more. We get the state of play — and a broad look at DoD’s science and technology enterprise — from former Air Force chief scientist Dr. Mark Lewis, now Chief National Security Officer at Purdue University. And a remembrance of the 20th Air Force Secretary, Jim Roche. Plus the week’s top airpower headlines. Powered by GE Aerospace!
Planes fly on money, and nobody takes apart a budget like Todd Harrison of the American Enterprise Institute. He joins us to get into what the $1.5 trillion budget means for airpower, what programs did better, and the chances the budget will pass with anything like that amount. Along the way, we’ll talk NGAD, B-21, Collaborative Combat Aircraft, weapons production, and the always thrilling… Congressional procedures. Plus the week’s top airpower headlines. Powered by GE Aerospace!
The United States Air Force maintains the airborne leg of America’s nuclear triad with the B-2, and the land-based leg with Minuteman. But it also connects the triad with an elaborate and heavily secured command and control network. Former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Ambassador Eric Edelman has a report out on that topic, and we’ll cover everything nuclear with him. And, of course, we have the week’s top headlines in airpower. Powered by GE Aerospace!