WASHINGTON. The U.S. Air Force (USAF) made progress on the joint U.S.-Australia effort to develop an air-breathing hypersonic cruise missile, with the USAF issuing round-two contract options to Boeing and Lockheed Martin as the next step of the so-called Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment (SCIFiRE), and an additional separate contract with Raytheon.

VENTURA, Calif. JetPack Aviation announced that its Speeder VTOL [vertical takeoff and landing] platform was chosen by the AFWERX High Speed VTOL (HSVTOL) Concept Challenge -- launched in partnership with the U.S. Air Force (USAF) and U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) -- which is aimed at fielding research, development, and testing, and procurement contracts to produce aircraft for the USAF.

ATLANTA, Ga. The U.S. Air Force is investing in the Hermeus Corporation, a United States-based aerospace company, via a $60 million jointly funded contract intended to accelerate the development of hypersonic aircraft and propulsion systems.

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. The U.S. Air Force conducted its second AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) booster flight test. Officials claim that it did not meet all flight objectives, but that the test did demonstrate several first-time events as the program continues to track toward fielding a hypersonic capability in the early 2020s.

BOISE, Idaho. Counter-unmanned aerial system (CUAS) company Black Sage has won a $950 million ceiling, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) contract with the U.S. Air Force for the maturation, demonstration, and proliferation of capability across platforms and domains.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. Raytheon Technologies -- Intelligence and Space Division -- was awarded a contract worth as much as $3.12 billion to build upgraded radar systems for advanced versions of the F-15 Eagle jet fighter, according to an announcement from the F-15 Division Contracts Branch, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (Ohio). 

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa. Collins Aerospace (a unit of Raytheon Technologies) has been tasked by the U.S. Air Force with developing two software-defined radios (SDRs) that will connect and transmit airborne and ground radio data for the first time using a multinode network. The contracts are worth up to $21 million for the company.