After moving through the first phase of the airworthiness assessment, Textron decided to step away from the process, Bill Harris, Textron’s vice president for Scorpion sales, confirmed in a July 14 interview.

The reason, he said, is that the company opted to pool its financial resources in support of its AT-6 Wolverine turboprop that the Air Force is evaluating as part of the light-attack experiment. If turned into a program of record, that opportunity could be worth several hundred planes.

“AT-6 is a very important program,” Harris told Defense News at the Royal International Air Tattoo. “Any smart company moves their resources where they need to go, and all of our efforts with the Scorpion are privately funded.”

The Air Force announced in July 2016 that it had signed a cooperative research and development agreement, or CRADA, with Textron. The agreement was the first of its kind, aimed at allowing the Air Force to gain insight into technologies it isn’t purchasing and to clear away some of the evaluations that must be done before a sale to a foreign nation.

That agreement — along with the opening of a new Non-DoD Military Aircraft Office (NDMAO) — garnered much media attention in the months following. In an August 2016 interview, the head of the NDMAO said that a CRADA to assess the Lockheed Martin-Korean Aerospace Industries F/A-50 was soon to be signed, and that another agreement for a different aircraft could be on its heels.

However, no such agreement on the F/A-50 or any other aircraft ever surfaced, and the work of the NDMAO faded into obscurity.

Textron may have suspended its efforts to assess the Scorpion jet, but the NDMAO is working on two active projects, Robert FitzHarris, the deputy director of the service’s airworthiness office, said in a statement.

One involves an agreement between the Air Force and General Atomics to conduct an airworthiness assessment of the MQ-9B SkyGuardian drone and the SeaGuardian, its maritime variant, he said. The CRADA is the first between the office and a maker of unmanned aircraft.

In essence, SkyGuardian is a version of the MQ-9 Reaper that will be certified to fly in any airspace safely. The drone has already found its first customer: the United Kingdom, which could buy anywhere from 21 to 26 copies.

Beyond that, the airworthiness assessment could raise the confidence levels of other countries interested in buying SkyGuardian. And, importantly, it gives the U.S. Air Force a window into the MQ-9B’s capabilities — which could help SkyGuardian break into the U.S. market.

IOMAX is also engaged in a CRADA with the Air Force for an assessment of its Archangel turboprop aircraft, FitzHarris said.

Like General Atomics, IOMAX has sold the Archangel internationally, but the addition of an airworthiness assessment from the Air Force may help attract new customers or pave the way for speedier sales.

Both the General Atomics and IOMAX efforts are still in Phase 1, where the Air Force and company lay out an “airworthiness assessment basis” that establishes a common understanding of how the airworthiness of a given aircraft would have been evaluated and graded.

Phase 2 revolves around submitting test reports, risk assessments and engineering data to the Air Force, who then conducts a technical assessment based on that data.

“We don’t do flight testing. We simply rely upon the data provided by the collaborator,” FitzHarris told Defense News in 2016, when he was leading the NDMAO.

“There’s testing, analysis, all of these things that typically feed into an assessment,” he said. “We have the technical expertise to take that … and give an assessment of compliance. Where there is compliance lacking or data lacking, we’re going to assess risk and then we provide that information in an assessment package back to the collaborator.”

Textron is open to restarting the airworthiness assessment effort for Scorpion in the future, provided it’s able to nail down a first customer to help offset the expense of doing the evaluations, Harris said.

“[Once] we [have] that launch customer, then we’ll re-initiate that program,” he said. “Until we get that, being privately funded and not a program of record with the Air Force, that continues to be all on our nickel.”

“Those funds have enhanced our lethality, our responsiveness and our resiliency and we want to make sure that our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are in a position to where they can be quicker and faster and sharper and stronger than their predecessors,” said Gen. Tod Wolters in an exclusive interview at the Royal International Air Tattoo.

The amount of money spent by the Air Force on the European Deterrence Initiative — the portion of the budget that invests in training and infrastructure meant to make Russia think twice about a confrontation with the United States or its allies — has shot up from $388.7 million in fiscal year 2017 to $1.07 billion in FY18. A fiscal 2019 request of $1.13 billion is still yet to be approved by Congress.

Much of the Air Force spending on EDI goes toward building up partners’ bases, predominantly in Baltic nations like Estonia and Latvia or other Eastern European countries along Russia’s border.

“It could be something as simple as rebuilding an air traffic control tower to where the visibility is 360 degrees and that controller can actually see every single aspect of the pattern from takeoff to landing,” Wolters said.

“A simple improvement in that area will improve conditions for air launch and recovery, allow you if needed to increase the number of launches sand recoveries which will allow you to fly more, spend more time training side by side, and improve your readiness.”

This year, the Air Force wants to spend $368.6 million to pre-position equipment and $363.8 million for military construction in FY19 — a major increase from FY17, when it spent about one-seventh of that.

Those investments would pay for everything from a new taxiway in Rygge, Norway, at a cost of $13.8 million to a $119 million facility in Ramstein, Germany, that would store tents, vehicles and other materials necessary if the Air Force needed to forward deploy to a country like Latvia or Poland.

Enhancements to infrastructure aren’t glamorous, but they can make a real difference in the quality of life to the airmen temporarily deployed there, said Wolters, citing improvements to beddown conditions at airbases in Estonia and Lithuania.

“The chow halls are just improved a little bit. There’s better access to hotels because we’ve figured out which hotels to go to, which ones are closest to the installations, because we’ve built this relationship in the embedded community,” he said.

Wolters also touted the effect of theater security packages, the service’s name for temporary rotations of combat aircraft, many of which are funded under EDI.

Consider the fact that when an F-15 squadron from the Air National Guard deploys to Romania — as is currently the case — those pilots will be working with air traffic controllers that could be located in anywhere from Camp Turzii to Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base. If that person has a thick accent, precious seconds and minutes can be lost as Romanian and U.S. troops try to communicate with each other.

“The quicker you can communicate what’s most important, the more capable you’ll be,” he said. “That doesn’t sound all that exciting, but saving seconds in an air confrontation could mean the difference between life and death. Today, it certainly enhances our ability to deter because we’re more aligned. We’re more transparent because we better understand each other as a result of having a longer and larger relationship.”

Although it’s rare that a general in the U.S. military says he’s getting enough money, Wolters says the EDI budget is at just about the right level of “smoothly and steadily” increase readiness.

“If you’ve got an operating environment and it’s not ready, willing and able to receive a quadrillion dollars and expend it, it won’t do you a whole heck of a lot of good,” he said.

“But if you’ve got an operating environment that gained predictability as a result of great conversations about schedule and flows of resources and time and money, you can continue with these readiness gains.”

Correction 7/23/18: A prior version of this story mistated the model of U.S. Air Force aircraft currently based in Romania as part of a theater security package. There are F-15s deployed there.

During a briefing to reporters on the sidelines of the Royal International Air Tattoo, Gene Cunningham, who leads Boeing’s international defense business, called the Embraer-Boeing deal a work in progress, “particularly on the defense side.”

“So to talk about what we’re going to do marketwise or how we’re going to approach [our partnership], that’s probably a little premature right at this point in time,” he said. “I think what’s important is to see the strength of association of the companies and the product lines that are out there, as well as the great services/install base we have and how that really blends and matches for the products and services across the board. And that’s one that we’ve got to work our way through at this point.”

In its initial statement released after the commercial joint venture was announced, Boeing stated that both companies would seek to create another defense-specific joint venture “to promote and develop new markets and applications […] based on jointly identified opportunities.”

Embraer’s KC-390 multi-mission plane was specifically mentioned as an area for potential cooperation. Both companies had already agreed in 2012 to jointly market the KC-390, with a deal signed in 2016 that laid out that Boeing would take responsibility for logistical support of the aircraft as it was sold to customers around the world.

Greg Smith, Boeing’s executive vice president for enterprise performance and strategy and chief financial officer, told reporters Sunday that the KC-390 has a special focus inside the Embraer tie-up.

Asked specifically if Boeing would have a financial percntage in each KC-390 sold, Smith said “we’re still working through final details of that,” but did note that the two companies are going partner together to “sell that aircraft globally,” another sign the KC-390 agreement will cover more than just the services aspect.

It’s possible that Boeing could even begin marketing KC-390 within the United States if an expanded partnership is agreed upon, Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst with the Teal Group, told Defense News.

“Maybe Boeing can convince SOCOM [U.S. Special Operations Command] or somebody to take a few of these. It’s not inconceivable,” he said.

There may be a chance for Boeing to partner in some way with Embraer on the A-29 Super Tucano, which is sold in the United States through prime contractor Sierra Nevada Corp. It could also find a role in Saab’s Gripen E program, where Embraer is doing final assembly of Brazilian jets.

“The potential is great. If you apply Boeing’s’ cost control methods and supply management methods to the Gripen, you get the Gripen product at a lower price point,” he said. “That’s always been the Gripen’s problem. Great plane. Way too expensive for what it is.”

Another potential opportunity lies inside Embraer’s portfolio of business jets, a lucrative business for the Brazilian company that could plug a hole in Boeing’s aviation portfolio.

Boeing’s super-profitable commercial side makes large airliners like the Boeing 777 or the 787 Dreamliner, but doesn’t produce small business jets — which has been a hindrance in international special mission aircraft competitions where foreign nations may prefer a smaller plane, Aboulafia said.

“Not everyone needs a full up Wedgetail,” he said, referencing Boeing’s 737-based airborne early warning aircraft. “They’ve been trying to sell the 737 for everything for so long. It’s a Rivet Joint replacement. […] It’s a Compass Call replacement. But people are pushing back and saying it’s not 737 for all occasions.”

Aaron Mehta in London contributed to this report.

“We are working with partners and others to try to find a solution,” Saab CEO Håkan Buskhe said during an interview at the Royal International Air Tattoo. “We are confident that we have a good system. … We are good in integration and could deliver according to time [constraints], probably much more affordably with better technology.”

Defense News was the first to report that Saab and Airbus specifically had discussed a partnership that would bring together Saab’s Erieye radar and an Airbus aircraft.

Read more from the 2018 Royal International Tattoo here!

Buskhe declined to confirm whether the company was in talks with Airbus, instead saying more broadly that it was speaking to a number of platform providers.

“First of all our sensors and our system integration is fantastic. We can see stealth aircraft from hundreds and hundreds of kilometers and follow them and target them and the same mode for land, air, at the same time,” he said.

Its GlobalEye aircraft — a modified Bombardier Global 6000 business jet with a suite of integrated sensors including an extended-range version of the Erieye radar, and that’s one one option, but “we are also open if there would be other platforms,” he added.

“We don’t compromise quality and efficiency,” he said. “From that, we are open to discussions to bring that technology for example into the U.K. and build them that.”

The United Kingdom is considering an order of new airborne early warning planes to replace its aging Boeing E-3D Sentry aircraft. In June, the Times newspaper reported that the U.K. government preferred to sole source the Wedgetail from Boeing.

One member of Parliament — Julian Lewis, who heads its Defence Committee — wrote an open letter to British Defence Procurement Minister Guto Bebb, urging the Ministry of Defence to open a wider competition, citing Boeing’s 2017 pursuit of tariffs against Bombardier that would have hurt a plant in Northern Ireland.

However, on July 12, Reuters reported that the MoD still leaned toward the sole-source plan and intended to award Boeing a contract for four to six Wedgetail aircraft in the coming weeks, valued at an estimated $1 billion.

If the United Kingdom does end up sole sourcing the Wedgetail, Buskhe said, Saab would “respect the government’s decision” and look for other potential business opportunities.

The aircraft made “aviation history” by carrying out the first trans-Atlantic flight of a UAV when it landed in the U.K. on July 11, according to manufacturer General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and the Royal Air Force.

The service’s incumbent fleet of MQ−9 Reaper UAVs that Protector will replace currently has its home base at Waddington, “continuing the foundations of flying Reaper,” he said. The Royal Air Force’s MQ−9B SkyGuardian variant is known as Protector.

Read more from Royal International Air Tattoo 2018 here!

SkyGuardian has been developed as a certifiable version of the ubiquitous Reaper UAV, designed to fly under traditional flight rules as if it were a manned platform.

However, while General Atomics may have written a small footnote in unmanned aviation history, the company’s effort to get the MQ−9B into service with the British is proving more trying.

Protector was originally slated to enter service this year but was put back to 2021. It now looks like it will be 2024 before the Reaper replacement will be fully operational.

The numbers are also changing. When Britain first announced its intention to acquire Protector in the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review, the numbers were put at more than 20, but for at least the moment Britain is looking at ordering an initial 16.

“The final number of Protectors we will acquire has yet to be set, but we are committed to more than doubl[ing] the existing capability provided by the fleet of 10 Reapers. Our current agreement with the U.S. government is for the initial supply of 16 air vehicles,” a Ministry of Defence spokesman said.

He added that work on the program was going well, but confirmed the program faced a delay.

“The Protector program is progressing well and will be introduced by mid−2024, which was a change from its previous in-service date. We are simply sensibly managing a seamless transition between getting the most out of our current Reaper aircraft and moving to the cutting-edge Protector,” he said.

Additionally, in the announcement from Williamson regarding the basing of Protector at Waddington, the MoD reiterated that the introduction of the UAV will double the RAF’s Reaper capability, which stands at 10 air vehicles.

The numbers and timing could be a matter of financial re-profiling at Britain’s cash-strapped Defence Ministry.

The upcoming publication of the defense review, known as the Modernising Defence Programme, could throw more light on MoD intentions.

Certainly, as Royal Air Force chiefs at the Air Power Conference in London earlier this week made clear, information as well as command and control are at the heart of a transformation effort already underway here. That should be a sweet spot for Protector.

In written evidence to Britain’s parliamentary Defence Committee in April, General Atomics admitted that only “strictly limited progress has been made towards realizing the SDSR 2015 commitment to more than 20 Protectors in Joint Force 2025.”

“Only 16 are currently being procured, and the platform will now be introduced later than originally planned,” General Atomics said.

The U.S. unmanned air vehicle specialist added that the delay is “financially driven.” It said progress had previously been affected by the “relatively cumbersome U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) process.”

Perhaps, unsurprisingly, General Atomics told the committee Britain should look beyond the SDSR commitment of “more than 20” for a further batch of the machines.

“Any additional Protectors to be capable of supplementing current maritime capabilities, not least the RAF’s P−8A Poseidon,” General Atomics noted. Protector is being delivered with interfaces to accommodate the size, weight and powerof the sense-and-avoid system.

General Atomics also used its written evidence to point to the lack of what it said was a key enabling capability Britain had opted not to buy for the UAV, even though the required interfaces were being fitted.

“Protector is being delivered without a Due Regard Radar, denying one of its key enabling capabilities, a sense-and-avoid system. Until such a system is integrated and operational, it will prove impossible for the RAF to realize the platform’s full potential, at least in terms of exerting global influence,” General Atomics said.

While the transit over to the U.K. from the U.S. demonstrated that the UAV is capable of flying long distances under traditional manned air traffic rulings, most of the journey was carried out over the sea, and flight overland was carried out under an overflight permission under which other air traffic effectively avoided the UAV ― certainly when flying over the U.K.

To fly over populated areas ― as is the intention of the RAF for its Protector program ― the UAV will need to be able to demonstrate safe separation from other aircraft. And if it is to fly in uncontrolled airspace, it is assumed that a sense-and-avoid system will be required.

Sources close to the program claim that developing a certifiable airframe does not necessarily translate to it carrying a sense-and-avoid system, and that extra funding will need to be committed in order to develop such a capability onboard.

As it stands, Protector is being acquired and developed under a number of different contracts ― a mix of the Foreign Military Sales and Direct Commercial Sales processes with the U.S. government and General Atomics ― and it is not as straightforward an acquisition as the parties involved may have hoped for.

There is still no production contract in place for Protector, and military sources claim this may not happen “for a number of years,” further indicating that the delivery of the UAV will be at the latter end of the “early 2020s.”

The unmanned aerial vehicle completed touched down at RAF Fairford in the United Kingdom after a 3,760 nautical mile sortie from the U.S. July 11 that began at the Grand Forks test site in North Dakota 24 hours and 2 minutes prior.

The journey was the first transatlantic flight of both the SkyGuardian and any MALE UAV, but also the first U.K. appearance of the UAV that the Royal Air Force will operate under its Protector program.

The U.K. is the launch customer for SkyGuardian, and the journey to RAF Fairford to take part in the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) ties in with the RAF’s centenary celebrations, as the MQ−9B will be one of the next combat aircraft types delivered to the service.

L3 Technologies Communication Systems provided Ku-band satellite communication (SATCOM) to control the UAV throughout the flight with no handover to a control station in the U.K, although Inmarsat Government provided a backup L-band SATCOM capability in case of failure.

A line-of-sight ground control station was shipped to Fairford and was responsible for taxiing the aircraft once it had carried out its automatic landing.

It flew at approximately 27,000 feet for most of the flight, dropping to 9,000 feet and maintaining a holding pattern near Fairford for some 2 hours ahead of landing, transiting initially via Canada, over to the South of Ireland, and then over Wales before reaching its end destination.

Click here to get all of the latest news from the Royal International Air Tattoo.

Jonny King, vice-president of GA-ASI UK, told a media briefing at Fairford that the transit demonstrates that the UAV is self-deploying, and the journey was relatively routine for the test aircraft — just with a different landing destination.

It has previously flown a sortie of more than 48 hours, King noted, and for the transatlantic flight it was able to fly under the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s authorization, with support from the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority that granted an overflight permission for the transit into U.K. airspace.

While the U.K. is on record as being the launch customer for the SkyGuardian through its Protector effort, the aircraft is yet to go through certification testing — one of the most distinguishing features of this variant — and will not be delivered to the RAF until the early 2020s.

Development and certification contracts for Protector have been signed, but a production contract for the buy is not expected to be signed for some time, the RAF told Defense News.

Air Marshal Julian Young, chief of materiel for air, defense equipment and support for the RAF, said that it is expected that Protector will be acquired under two direct commercial sales contracts and two foreign military sales deals with the U.S. government, covering the various elements of development and acquisition.

“Protector is one of the most exciting projects I have to deliver,” Young said, adding that it will be a “gamechanger” in its ability to fly alongside manned aircraft under the remit of air traffic control, with the ultimate goal of being able to fly in open airspace alongside uncontrolled aircraft.

“This is a key component of the future of the RAF’s air power,” he told media at the aircraft landing event. “I hope this is going to set the standard for aviation. The U.K. is very happy to be the lead with this unique capability.”

SkyGuardian has been in test flight for some 18 months so far, King said, adding that the second test aircraft – YBCO2 – will join the first aircraft in test flight in the next month or so.

In accordance with the U.K.’s 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review, the RAF will more than double its MALE UAV capability, which is currently fulfilled by a fleet of 10 Block 1 MQ-9 Reapers, so as few as 21 could be acquired, although 26 is a figure that has been previously touted.

The RAF has claimed that integrating UK-made weaponry is a priority for the program, so it will operate MBDA’s Brimstone ground attack missile and Raytheon UK Paveway IV laser-guided bombs, although contracts for these have also not yet been signed.

“Sovereignty is clearly an important issue,” Young told Defense News, adding that while the Reapers that were bought in the same configuration operated by the U.S. Air Force have been a capability that the U.K. has been able to effectively exploit, more sovereignty would have been an advantage. But “this comes at a cost.”

He added that the training capability that the U.K. will use is still undecided on, although the U.K. is open to this taking place domestically or with other partners should another nation elect to acquire aircraft.

SkyGuardian will be showcased throughout RIAT before being dismantled and shipped back to the U.S. a week later, King noted.

Competition between potential aircraft designers will be pivotal to spur innovation and “to get the best solution to the complex challenges we face,” said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein in an exclusive July 10 interview with Defense News.

“I’m not at all concerned by the fact that we might have alternative solutions being put forward by England, France, Germany, you name it,” he said. “That to me is all for the good because it produces the competitive environment that you need for innovation to occur.”

Goldfein’s comments came days before a meeting of international air chiefs and the Royal International Air Tattoo, which kicks off this Friday at Royal Air Force Fairford in England.

Read more from Royal International Air Tattoo 2018 here!

During either RIAT or the Farnborough Airshow, which starts next week, the United Kingdom is expected to lay out a road map for a fighter jet that could be fielded in the 2040s to replace the Eurofighter Typhoon.

Meanwhile, Germany and France have decided to partner on their own Future Combat Air System to replace the Typhoon and Dassault Rafale. Officials have said the program would be opened to other countries further down the line, but French and German defense firms such as Airbus, Dassault, Thales, MBDA and Safran are expected to pick up major work.

Since the reveal of the new National Defense Strategy earlier this year, U.S. Air Force leaders have been loathe to comment on its next fighter jet — alternately called Next Generation Air Dominance and also known as Penetrating Counter Air. Leadership has instead promoted a vague “family of systems” that would be developed by the service to preserve air superiority into the 2030s.

But while the F−35 was conceived from the ground up as a multinational program, experts say it’s unlikely the U.S. Air Force’s next fighter jet would involve that level of foreign cooperation.

U.S. allies don’t necessarily need to use the same aircraft in order to be interoperable, Goldfein said. However, more work needs to be done to ensure current and future aircraft are able to share data with international partners and exploit the data incoming from foreign operators.

“When it comes to interoperability, I think we all recognize we’ve all been moving down this path of multidomain operations, and the hardest nut to crack moving forward in this vision is the C2 part, the command and control,” he said.

“That’s why you’ve seen me pushing so hard on that. And there’s recognition with every air chief I talk to that we’ve got to find ways to bust down the barriers of information sharing because anything we field has got to connect, it’s got to share, it’s got to learn, and that’s not a U.S.-only mandate. That’s an international mandate for coalition partners that will fly together.”

The unmanned aerial system won’t be flying at RIAT this weekend — in fact, this MQ−8C has had its avionics stripped out and is intended as a showpiece.

However, Northrop hopes to showcase the Fire Scout’s ability to accomplish a mission set it hopes will entice foreign buyers: anti-submarine warfare.

“This is going to be the first time that the larger Fire Scout is going to be seen by some of our partner nations that will be attending RIAT,” said Jack Thomas, the company’s director of Fire Scout operations. “The why behind that, I would say, is when you look at where the program is from the U.S. Navy’s perspective, I think they see it as a really good opportunity to at least expose to a larger audience what the capability is that the U.S. Navy has been started to integrate here now.”

The Fire Scout at RIAT will be displayed alongside a new anti-submarine warfare pod not currently in use by the U.S. Navy. Northrop believes the drone can serve as a longer-endurance alternative to manned helicopters, which are widely used by international countries to perform the ASW mission today.

Read more from the 2018 Royal International Air Tattoo!

Aside from the ASW pod, which is made by U.K.-based defense contractor Ultra Electronics, the MQ−8C at RIAT will also be paired with radomes from Leonardo’s Osprey 30 active electronically scanned array radar. Northrop is currently integrating that radar with the unmanned helicopter, with a planned early operational capability planned in 2019 and initial fielding in late 2020.

“That radar is a fantastic radar. There are two arrays that are integrated into the aircraft and give a huge field of coverage,” Thomas said.

The MQ−8C — an unmanned version of the Bell 407 with Northrop-devised controls that allow it to autonomously take off and land on ships — is currently bound within the line of sight of the ship upon which it’s embarked, although the Navy has a technology road map that would allow it to go beyond that.

However, even now, the altitude that the MQ−8C flies at allows it to see way past what a shipboard radar would normally be capable of doing, Thomas said.

“Any kind of a mast-mounted radar on a ship will at maximum give you 12–20 [nautical miles] depending on the atmosphere that day,” he said. “Your Fire Scout itself can go up to 100 miles from the ship because of its own line of sight link back to the ship, and then its radar can go over 100 miles itself. So now you’ve extended your ability to sense and detect out to multiple hundred miles for the ship.”

Fire Scout is set to be fielded aboard the Freedom- and Independence-class littoral combat ships to conduct surveillance. The “Charlie” version of the system has double the endurance and three times the payload of the earlier MQ−8B model.

The MQ−8C is scheduled to hit a number of milestones over the next year as it moves from development to fleet integration. Last week, the Navy conducted at-sea tests of the Fire Scout aboard littoral combat ship Coronado for the drone’s initial operational test and evaluation period, and the service will now begin land-based tests, Thomas said.

The event would be tied to Space Symposium, which is held every spring in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the home of U.S. Air Force Space Command.

“I’m looking at the possibility. We’ll sort of gauge the interest,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein told Defense News during an exclusive July 10 interview ahead of the Royal International Air Tattoo, which kicks off July 13.

Read more about the Royal International Air Tattoo 2018 here!

Goldfein’s pitch is somewhat unusual, as meetings of international air chiefs typically revolve around the more traditional domain of air operations.

However, Goldfein said the explosive growth in the commercial space industry makes it the right time for military leaders to figure out whether they have shared goals when it comes to military space — and how to telegraph those interests to companies hungry to do innovative work in the defense sector.

“There’s huge opportunity ahead for us as we look to leverage where industry is going with this lower-cost access to space because you have more access to economical launch and you’ve got payloads that are coming down in size,” he said.

“We’re going from school buses to suitcases, and the combination of those two factors is making space profitable.”

Goldfein has been a strong proponent of increasing interoperability among U.S. Air Force assets, the rest of the U.S. services, and the nation’s allies and partners. Figuring out how to integrate the space domain into wider Air Force strategy has been a key part of that discussion.

The proposed event comes at a time when the Air Force ownership of the space mission is in flux. President Donald Trump announced in June his intention for the Defense Department to break space operators into their own separate service — a space force that would be “separate but equal” to the Air Force.

Experts have said such a transition could take years, even if it is approved by Congress. In the meantime, by driving the international conversation on military space, the U.S. Air Force could potentially reassert itself as the Pentagon’s primary source of space leadership.

Goldfein already discussed the space-themed air chiefs conference with one of his counterparts — Italian Air Chief Gen. Enzo Vecciarelli — during a July 5-9 trip where he visited NATO’s Aviano Air Base as well as the Ghedi and Amendola air bases, two Italian Air Force installations. However, the conversation “was a subset of a much broader interoperability discussion,” he noted.

The U.S. Air Force has recently tried to broaden conversations about military space operations to its international allies and partners.

“Everything we do in space is ‘secret, NOFORN,’ ” U.S. Strategic Command head Gen. John Hyten said this April at Space Symposium, using an acronym for “no foreign nationals.”

That makes it all but impossible for the United States to share information with its partners about space operations, he said.

To help ameliorate that problem, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson announced in April plans to open a number of educational courses on space operations to students from select foreign militaries.

“Russia and China are developing capabilities to disable our satellites,” she had said. “We will work with like-minded nations to preserve the ability to freely and safely operate in space. We will work with our allies to improve operations, enhance deterrence, defend our vital national interests and prevail when called upon.”

WASHINGTON ― The British Royal Air Force celebrated a century of service with a skilled flyover of London on July 10, demonstrating formations and showcasing dozens of current and historical aircraft.

One hundred aircraft with nearly 200 aircrew from 25 different squadrons, operating from 14 military stations and two civilian airfields, took part, according to an RAF publication.

Participating planes included the F-35B Lightning II and World War II-era planes like the Lancaster bomber and Spitfire fighter.

The RAF earned high praise from the queen during the festivities, who noted the RAF’s “remarkable contribution to defense” of the nation.

As the RAF prepares for the next 100 years, modernization programs like the F-35 acquisitions are sure to shape the force.