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The Air Force wants $6 billion to build a fleet of AI-controlled drones
The USAF wants to build a fleet of $3 million drone aircraft that can get shot at so American pilots don't have to be.
An AI agent flew a USAF training aircraft for over 17 hours
Lockheed Martin says a 17-hour test flight in December was the first time an AI has flown a tactical aircraft.
X-37B space plane launches on its most ambitious mission to date
The X-37B space plane has launched carrying its most experiments ever -- and an endurance record to challenge.
Nearly the whole US military has banned TikTok
When the Army, Marines and Navy all put the kibosh on TikTok, you knew it was just a matter of time before other US military branches followed suit -- and sure enough, they have. The Air Force and Coast Guard have confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that they no longer allow TikTok on government-issued devices. It's not yet clear that the ban is truly comprehensive (the recently established Space Force hasn't weighed in), but it effectively leaves no 'safe' space for TikTok on military hardware.
Air Force's X-37B space plane lands after record 780 days in orbit
There was no doubt that the US Air Force's X-37B was going to break its own record for time spent in orbit, but it's now clear by how much. The mysterious Boeing-made space plane has landed at Kennedy Space Center after 780 days in orbit, comfortably surpassing the earlier record of 717 days, 20 hours and 42 minutes. That's more than three times the 240 days originally expected from the reusable vehicle, which just finished its fifth mission.
SpaceX sues over 'wrongly awarded' Air Force rocket contracts
To say that SpaceX was unhappy with losing out on the US Air Force's rocket development contracts would be an understatement. The company has sued the US government under claims that the Air Force "wrongly awarded" contracts to Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman and United Launch Alliance. The military branch handed out offers to the competition despite their "unproven rockets" and "unstated metrics," while allegedly ignoring SpaceX's own real-world record. The company had completed numerous missions with its Falcon rockets, according to the lawsuit, but was deemed "highest risk" because of its largely untested Starship.
US Air Force successfully shoots down multiple missiles with a laser
The US Air Force just edged closer to its goal of outfitting aircraft with laser weapons. Testers at the White Sands Missile Range have successfully shot down multiple air-launched missiles using the Self-Protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator (SHiELD), proving that it can hold up under intense situations. While SHiELD is currently a ground-based behemoth (see below), the finished technology should be portable and rugged enough to be used aboard aircraft.
Air Force security hackathon leads to record payout
The US Air Force's second security hackathon has paid dividends... both for the military and the people finding holes in its defenses. HackerOne has revealed the results of the Hack the Air Force 2.0 challenge from the end of 2017, and it led to volunteers discovering 106 vulnerabilities across roughly 300 of the USAF's public websites. Those discoveries proved costly, however. The Air Force paid out a total of $103,883, including $12,500 for one bug -- the most money any federal bounty program has paid to date.
Air Force general behind government 5G memo leaves White House
That scrapped proposal for a goverment-run 5G network is triggering a political fallout. A senior official has confirmed to the Washington Post that the author of the memo pushing for the 5G network, Brigadier General Robert Spalding, has left his position as the National Security Council's senior director for strategic planning and returned to the Air Force. He wasn't fired, the insider claimed, and this wasn't prompted by the leak -- rather, the Council decided against renewing his position in part because his push for government 5G had "gone beyond his role."
Lockheed's 'Son of Blackbird' spy plane might already be here
The Lockheed Martin SR-71 Blackbird is one of the most recognizable aircraft designs in history. Few other planes have captured the public's attention and imagination in quite the same way as the SR-71 has since it was declassified in 1990 (nearly 30 years after it entered service). And though we're now two decades on from the Blackbird's retirement, America's need for supersonic, high-altitude surveillance has not diminished.
The Pentagon is hunting ISIS using big data and machine learning
Military and civilian intelligence analysts "overwhelmed" by the sheer volume of video surveillance data recorded over the America's numerous military incursions against ISIS will soon get some relief. The Pentagon announced on Monday that it is tasking its newly-minted Algorithmic Warfare Cross Functional Team (AWCFT), dubbed Project Maven, with using big data and machine learning to accelerate the process of discovering actionable intelligence in all that aerial imagery.
Drone is the first spacecraft in years to use a key Shuttle runway
Kennedy Space Center is slowly coming back to life, but you almost wouldn't know it by looking at the Shuttle Landing Facility. While it has seen some limited use for aircraft in recent years, it hasn't been used for an orbital mission landing since... well, the last Space Shuttle in 2011. At last, though, it's back to serving its core purpose. The US Air Force's X-37B space drone has touched down at the facility after completing its fourth mission. The highly secretive, autonomous spacecraft could have landed as early as February, but stayed aloft those extra few months for unknown reasons.
Air Force enlists hackers to hunt bugs in its site
Bug bounties have been a staple among startups and online businesses since the days of Netscape Navigator but the federal government has been slow to adopt the beneficial code hunts. However, a year after the DoD's first such program, Hack The Pentagon, the Air Force announced on Wednesday that it will be hosting one of its own next month.
DARPA successfully flew a model of its 24-fan electric plane
DARPA's experimental Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) aircraft, the XV-24A LightningStrike, cleared another developmental hurdle by completing its subscale flight tests in early March, according to its manufacturer, Aurora Flight Sciences.
US Air Force buys counter-drone tech to battle ISIS
The Pentagon is purchasing tech from Israeli defense firm that could jam or take down weaponized drones used by ISIS, according to Defense One. The $15.6 million contract was awarded for "man-portable aerial defense systems kits," something that usually refers to shoulder-fired missiles. However, the USAF department that purchased it is in charge of communications and electronics devices, and the seller, Israeli Aeronautics Industries (IAI), just happens to manufacture a jamming device called "Drone Guard."
Air Force boosts drone pilot bonuses to keep up with demand
It's no secret that the US Air Force is doing everything it can to recruit and keep drone pilots, and now it's resorting to a very direct solution: cold, hard cash. The military branch is offering $10,000 more per year in bonuses to those pilots who renew their active duty commitment for 5 years. They were already getting a hefty $25,000 extra per year, but this is a huge incentive -- if a pilot is active for the full term, that's a total of $175,000 above and beyond their usual pay.
US Air Force says the F-35 is ready for combat
The F-35 Lightning II has faced more than a few technical problems and cost overruns in the 15 years since Lockheed Martin first won its production contract, but it's nearly done overcoming those hurdles. The US Air Force has declared that the F-35A (that is, the conventional takeoff model) is officially ready for combat. The first squadron to get the advanced jet, the 34th Fighter Squadron at Utah's Hill Air Force Base, can now deploy it on real-world missions if necessary.
Combat AI beats the Air Force's top tactical experts
A new artificial intelligence flight combat system dubbed ALPHA has taken on one of the Air Force's top tactical experts and won. Retired USAF Colonel Gene Lee -- an experienced combat instructor with "considerable fighter aircraft expertise" -- was repeatedly shot down during engagements with ALPHA in a high-fidelity air combat simulation. Lee called his computerized opponent "the most aggressive, responsive, dynamic and credible AI I've seen to date."
Inhabitat's Week in Green: The Karma Revero, and more!
The Fisker Karma is one of the hottest plug-in hybrid cars ever built. However, production stopped in 2012 when the company went bankrupt. Now the car is set to be reborn as the Karma Revero this year. Meanwhile, Ford is planning to launch a 200-mile electric car to take on the Tesla Model 3 and the Chevy Bolt. In other news, SpaceX announced plans to send its Red Dragon spacecraft to mars in 2018, while NASA invested $67 million to develop super efficient solar-electric engines. The US Air Force smashed the world record for maglev speed by propelling a floating sled to 633 miles per hour. And the Twicycle is a crazy bike that's powered by your arms and legs.
The USAF's new 'cyber weapon' hunts network vulnerabilities
The US Air Force's Space Command recently announced that its latest cyber weapon, dubbed the Cyberspace Vulnerability Assessment/Hunter (CVA/H), has come online and is "fully operational". The CVA/H is designed to perform threat assessment and compliance within the Air Force's command network. Basically, it tracks down and fixes potentially exploitable network security flaws that may hamper USAF missions.
