**Drones: The Future of U.S.
This is a trend that has been gaining momentum for years, and it’s only going to accelerate in the future. The rise of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, has been a significant development in the U.S. air power.
The Air Force, unlike other branches of the military, didn’t rely on traditional procurement methods like competitive bidding. Instead, it opted for a sole-source contract with a single vendor, Northrop Grumman. This approach, while potentially efficient, has been criticized for its lack of competition and potential for higher costs.
The Air Force is shifting its approach to acquiring new systems, moving away from traditional methods and embracing a more agile and innovative approach. This shift is driven by the need to rapidly respond to evolving threats and maintain a competitive edge in the air and space domains. The Air Force is adopting a new acquisition strategy that emphasizes speed, flexibility, and collaboration.
And such modifications are already guiding other changes to the force. In a Sept. 4 panel at the Defense News conference, Hunter said the operational imperatives were the “genesis” of a broader restructuring of the Air Force, called the reoptimization for great power competition, that was unveiled earlier this year. Along the way, the operational imperative effort also prompted the Air Force to rethink how it does business and procures new aircraft and other systems, in particular by bringing the operational and acquisition communities together. From the start, Hunter said, each team working on an operational imperative effort was co-led by an acquisition expert and an operational expert, so each perspective was equally balanced. The systems eventually developed will be used by the Air Force’s operators, so involving them each step of the way was logical, he added.
This is where the importance of a robust and well-designed system for managing the acquisition process comes into play. **Key Points:**
* **Rapid Acquisition Process:** The modern business environment demands swift and efficient acquisition processes. * **Decision Complexity:** Acquisitions involve numerous complex decisions across various stages. * **System Importance:** A robust system is crucial for managing the complexities of the acquisition process.
The Air Force is seeking to develop a new generation of autonomous drones, capable of operating independently and collaborating with other drones. This initiative is part of the Air Force’s broader effort to modernize its air and space capabilities. The Air Force’s goal is to create a network of autonomous drones that can operate independently and collaborate with each other to achieve a common goal.
The United States is also facing threats from Russia, which is increasingly assertive in its actions, particularly in Ukraine. The US is also concerned about the rise of China’s influence in Africa, and the potential for cyberattacks from North Korea. The United States is actively working to address these threats through a combination of diplomacy, military, and economic measures.
And the Air Force changed course on Next-Generation Air Dominance, a future fighter family of systems expected to replace the F-22. The price tag for each NGAD, as originally conceived, would likely have been about three times the cost of an F-35, Kendall said. The NGAD program is now on hold while the Air Force reconsiders its design, and it is unclear when the service will award a contract. The imperatives were built around a “focus on operational problems we need to solve,” Kendall said. “What are the things we need to figure out to make sure we’re competitive and stay ahead of other threats?”
Kendall said the Air Force is making progress on these imperatives, though he tempered his comments by noting that funding limitations and shortfalls in cybersecurity and other technology have kept the effort from moving as quickly as he hoped. “I’m always impatient,” Kendall said. “I want to go faster to get militarily meaningful quantities out into the force that make a difference operationally.” When Kendall announced his operational imperative plan, work was already well under way on the 2023 budget proposal. This meant the first time the Air Force could request funding for new operational imperative efforts was in the 2024 budget cycle.
But Congress threw the Pentagon a curveball. Disputes on Capitol Hill held up the military’s 2024 spending bill for months, and the fiscal year was already half over when lawmakers finally passed it. While the 2024 budget delay hindered much of the operational imperative effort, Hunter said, some elements — such as the command, control, communications and battle management, or C3BM, effort — were already under way or had existing funding to get going. The Air Force was able to move quickly to field C3BM capabilities, such as the cloud-based command and control effort that knit together several different air defense data sources to better defend the homeland. Hunter said that was able to be fielded rapidly over the last two-plus years or so, and has been successful.
A. Air Force: Committed to CCAs Despite Budgetary Challenges
B.
This statement highlights the Air Force’s commitment to the development of CCAs, even in the face of budget constraints. It emphasizes the program’s importance and the Air Force’s dedication to its advancement. The Air Force’s commitment to CCAs is further supported by the fact that the program has already received significant funding. This funding has enabled the program to progress significantly, demonstrating the Air Force’s seriousness about its development.
The growth of additive manufacturing, and technology advancements making it possible to conduct distributed manufacturing for high-end military capabilities, are also helping the Air Force create its new procurement model, Hunter said. “You can scale more rapidly,” he said. “You can maybe work more intimately with partners and allies … which is definitely important to our strategy of integrated deterrence. You can do complex designs more affordably. These approaches are very consistent with rapidly adopting those technologies into our production and design processes.” Hunter feels strongly that this approach to procurement — with tighter cooperation between acquisition experts, industry and operators and more frequent iterations to evolve designs — will one day become standard for the Air Force, and perhaps other services.
“This is the way to do it, now and in the immediate future,” Hunter said. “I don’t see a date where it will become less relevant.” And it’s not an entirely new approach, he said, but it is a habit the Air Force had gotten out. He compared this strategy to that of the World War II and post-war eras — when aviation technology transformed by leaps and bounds — as opposed to the late-Cold War era of the 1980s and 1990s, during which the pace of advancements slowed. “Change was happening so fast” during WWII, Hunter said. “And you see … how quickly we were able to develop rockets and missiles in the ‘50s and ‘60s. The pace of change and progress was so fast that it drove us towards these more tight-knit relationships among experts.
“It’s not unprecedented, but I definitely think it’s a little bit of a ‘back to the future’ scenario of behaving a little more like we did in those earlier periods.” Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
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