It could have solely been two months since Andrew Hunter crammed the function of Air Force Acquisitions Chief however his tenure to date has been a busy one.
First of all, two main international points have persevered of late, making the begin of this job difficult. For one, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to complicate international operations of all types. The conflict in Ukraine, in fact, has restricted provide chains, including extra strain to army places of work in the US in addition to round the world.
These two persistent issues have led on to the US Air Force arguing with an necessary contractor with reference to the continued delay of an ongoing program. Furthermore, the service continues to face tighter and tighter timelines inside its plan to develop after which area new capabilities earlier than the subsequent main outbreak of conflict.
Among the Air Force’s extra bold applications, a latest one entails a plan to develop a sequence of latest, autonomous drones that would doubtlessly function a form of wingman for piloted fighter jets and different fight plane. As a matter of truth, Hunter exalts that the service is at the moment attempting to focus extra on progressing by means of the demonstration stage and into sensible operation checks to research how they may work in the area. The service is presently calling these units collaborative fight plane.
Of course, a necessity for profitable demonstrations stays amongst areas the place the expertise nonetheless wants refinement. These areas embody capabilities like swarming drones, and the work might embody creating smaller drones that would have enlargement capabilities too. Overall, although, Hunter notes that the service will focus its efforts and vitality at delivering a product that may very well be prepared for operation in time for use in the subsequent conflict.
While there may be definitely a way of urgency to complete the undertaking, the acquisition technique and timeline remains to be into consideration. Hunter feedback it’s probably the Air Force will fee a number of contractors—as a substitute of a single one—to expedite the total course of by capitalizing on rising competitors inside the quickly increasing autonomy core programs business.
