Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall speaks at the keynote of AFA 2023 Day One. (Brendon Smith/Breaking Defense)
AFA 2023 — Day one of the 2023 Air and Space Forces Association national conference is in the book. While there weren’t a ton of announcements, there certainly was plenty to see. Here are some of the sights from the conference floor.
It’s a surveillance and communications balloon named SHADE (Synchronized High Altitude Distributed Environment) that’s designed to “leverage the stratosphere,” says SNC. The black bit at the bottom of the model is a solar panel, and many more panels can be added depending on payload. (Brendon Smith/Breaking Defense.)
Missiles a flyin’ at AFA; at top left is a Joint Strike Missile from RTX. Also on their booth is an AIM-9X Sidewinder just below, an AIM-120 AMRAAM at top right, and a GBU-53/B StormBreaker glide bomb at bottom right. (Brendon Smith/Breaking Defense.)
Tucked in a small seating area on the Boeing stand is a model of the E-7 airborne early warning and control aircraft. It’s a command-and-control platform for multi-domain awareness. (Brendon Smith/Breaking Defense.)
If looks could kill, Anduril’s Fury multi-mission Group 5 autonomous air vehicle certainly fits the bill. Fury’s mission is to accelerate the development, testing, and fielding of mission autonomy. (Brendon Smith/Breaking Defense.)
A first-time visitor to be displayed at an industry show: a model of Northrop Grumman’s scramjet engine that powered the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapons Concept (HAWC) missile. Behind it is a Stand-in Attack Weapon for the Air Force. (Brendon Smith/Breaking Defense.)
Airmen all in a row. Given that they’re at the FlightSafety booth, their virtual reality goggles are displaying training like emergency procedures, cockpit familiarization, and traffic pattern operations. (Brendon Smith/Breaking Defense.)