Boeing and Lockheed Withdraw B-21 Challenge

Editor’s Note: When Northrop-Grumman won the original award of the U.S. Air Force’s Long Range Strike-Bomber (LRS-B, now known as the B-21) contract, the competing team of Boeing and Lockheed-Martin filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Their claim was denied by the GAO, and both companies have elected to not pursue any […]

Air Force: Out With The Old, In With The New?

Editor’s Note: If you were the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force and had one dollar in your pocket to spend, how would you do it? Would you expend those resources on legacy platforms to keep them in service as long as possible? Do you spend that whole dollar on tomorrow’s near-peer or […]

Raytheon Enters U.S. T-X Jet Trainer Competition

Editor’s Note: Competition for the USAF’s T-38 jet trainer replacement, known simply as the T-X at this point, has a field of very capable vendors and partnerships. The latest to join is an partnership comprised of Raytheon, Finmeccanica, and CAE, and the team will offer the T-100 for review. Raytheon on Monday officially announced it is […]

New Details Emerge On LRS-B Subcontractors

Editor’s Note: As we’ve mentioned before, everyone in the industry is anxious to hear more details about the LRS-B and what it brings to the fight that our current strategic bombers simply cannot. While we at FighterSweep are just as curious as anyone else (and speculate amongst ourselves), it’s important to remember secrecy is incredibly […]

SECAF: LRS-B Represents The Future For Our Airmen

Editor’s Note: We’ve been talking about LRS-B quite a bit, and this morning at the Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Florida, Secretary of the Air Force (SECAF) Deborah Lee James released the first artist rendering of the Northrop-Grumman LRS-B. The aircraft, since it is the first new bomber design of the 21st Century, is officially […]

New Radar Erected On Chinese Artificial Island?

Editor’s Note: This is in a similar vein of what we’ve been talking about with Chinese radar’s ability to detect and possibly track low-observable aircraft such as the F-22 and F-35. The PLAAF and its air defense efforts seems to be solely focused on the threat posed by LO aircraft, and that notion is reflected […]

LRS-B: Air Force Promises More Info On New Bomber

Editor’s Note: We’re all really anxious to hear more about Northrop-Grumman’s winning LRS-B design, but in all likelihood we’ll have to wait for a little bit. Preparations are underway at different installations to accommodate the new design and its infrastructure, but beyond that, there isn’t much to tell at this point. We’ll see what happens […]

DoD: Sixth-Generation Fighters Likely To Differ

Editor’s Note: There are a lot of guesses as to what sixth-Generation air dominance will look like, some of which we detailed when the concepts were released a few weeks ago. It’s fair to say there are differing opinions as to what the finish product will look like or act like, but it’s very likely–simply […]

GAO: Northrop-Grumman LRS-B Contract Award Upheld

Editor’s Note: This is a really big deal, FighterSweep Fans. There has been speculation in the past few days the LRS-B award might be overturned because of accusations of impropriety on the part of Richard Lombardi, who held the top civilian seat in the Air Force’s Acquisitions (AQL) Directorate. Apparently Lombardi failed to mention his […]

Development of JSTARS Replacement Underway!

Editors Note: The E-8 Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) made its combat debut 25 years ago during Operation Desert Storm. With its powerful Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and other sensors, the E-8C has proven itself time and time again in a variety of disciplines to combatant commanders. As the airframes age, the time […]

Bahrain To Order The Newest Viper?

[Editor’s Note: The F-16V represents a substantial leap in capability over all existing variants of the venerable Fighting Falcon, with the exception of the UAE’s Block 60. That being said, the new Viper took flight for the first time this past October, with Northrop-Grumman’s APG-83 SABR aboard at Lockheed-Martin’s facility in Fort Worth, Texas. Will […]

Rose Parade B-2 Flyover

So how many of you took in “America’s New Year Celebration” yesterday? The Rose Parade was a family tradition when I was a kid, and it was always exciting to see the ways the float makers would try to outdo their efforts from previous years. As an adult, I find myself more curious to see […]