Pilotless UAS Program

Aug. 22, 2005

Well, give him credit for candor. “There is no mandate for anybody to do anything,” said Dyke Weatherington, a top Pentagon official, in an Aug. 17 briefing on DOD’s new Unmanned Aerial Systems’ roadmap. Despite the lofty goals laid out in the 200-page plus document, no department is currently charged with making sure goals are met.

Related Content

No COVID-19 Vaccine, No PCS Moves, Air Force Says

Nov. 24, 2021
With several thousand Airmen still unvaccinated against COVID-19, the Air Force is reportedly introducing a new consequence for those without a medical or administrative exemption. Starting Nov. 29, unvaccinated Airmen will be blocked from moving to new assignments unless they are on existing PCS orders or have been selected for…

New DOD Group to ‘Synchronize’ Efforts to Track Unidentified Aerial Phenomena

Nov. 24, 2021
The Defense Department is establishing a new office to coordinate its approach to unidentified aerial phenomena, signaling the Pentagon’s increasing interest as the issue becomes less and less of a fringe concern. The Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group will be organized under the office of Undersecretary of Defense…

KC-46 Weapons Systems Council Unifies Lessons Learned With USAF’s New Tanker

Nov. 24, 2021
Air Mobility Command’s KC-46 next-generation refueler has been operating from five bases nationwide and for nearly two years, but lessons learned and problems encountered were not unified until a Nov. 17-18 Weapons Systems Council at McConnell Air Force Base, Kan. “The KC-46, being a new platform, it did not have…

AFRL Wants to Capture College Creativity in Maturing AI for Autonomous Systems

Nov. 24, 2021
An $88 million deal with the University of Dayton will hopefully “add a unique fresh look” at maturing artificial intelligence for Air Force autonomy applications. The agreement between the Air Force Research Laboratory and the university—a program called Soaring Otter—expands on what Kelly Miller of the AFRL Sensors Directorate characterized…

Upgraded Missile Warning Satellites Come ‘Another Significant Step’ Closer to Reality

Nov. 23, 2021
The Space Force’s “go fast acquisition” of three new missile warning satellites passed a system-level critical design review Oct. 28 that judged how the satellites and associated ground systems will work together and how the new equipment will work with existing missile warning systems. The satellites are designed with “improved…

Data Hackathons to Help Expand Digital Engineering in the Testing Community

Nov. 23, 2021
So-called “hackers” from three commands competed in a hackathon Nov. 1-5 to help the Air Force Test Pilot School figure out how to manage stores of data in an expansion of digital engineering. Now the Air Force Test Center plans to stage quarterly hackathons with the next goal “to not only…