We reported the QDR-2007 budget demise of USAF’s E-10 all-in-one ISR platform (all but a test aircraft) and the Airborne Laser. It seems USAF leaders decided they also could do without the Electric B-52. Defense analyst Loren Thompson says the Air Force now thinks a B-52 jammer would not make a suitable mate for strike aircraft. (Just a few months ago, the service was poised to name an industry integrator.) USAF wants a “faster, more survivable” bird, says Thompson, adding that the new likely contender is a modified F-15E.
The stand-up of the Space Force, and now its early overhaul and the creation of a new Space Systems Command, are all about resilience: Ensuring that space capabilities, which the whole country relies on, could survive a concerted attack by a near-peer adversary. As part of that drive, a new…