Defense

PARIS — The French Army is expected to receive 108 Serval armored vehicles in 2022 as part of an order from manufacturers Nexter and Texelis totaling 364. The contract was finalized through the DGA procurement agency on Dec. 23 but was not announced until Jan. 15. The two companies, which formed a temporary joint operation to build the light-armored, multirole Serval, will deliver the…

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy’s new Long Range Anti-Ship Missile must go through more rigorous and realistic testing, according to the 2020 annual report from the director of operational test and evaluation. Citing “multiple hardware and software failures” in the first iteration of the LRASM missile, the DOT&E report calls on the Navy to put the new LRASM 1.1 through a rigorous testing…

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy wants to buy a next-generation large surface combatant by the end of the 2030s, but its not being built for a new kind of sensor or weapon system. The newly dubbed DDG(X) is being built for power. The Navy has, or course, built ships around advancements in engineering systems before: Nuclear power or steam engines, for example, have led to big leaps in naval design.

WASHINGTON — The world’s two largest defense companies have joined a growing number of American industrial titans pausing their political donations after Lockheed Martin and Boeing announced Wednesday they would halt contributions following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. capitol. A third major defense contractor, BAE Systems, also announced Wednesday that it was pausing political spending in…