Communications-technology company Persistent Systems is outfitting the U.S. Air Force’s mobility command with hundreds of radios and erectable antennas to soup up logistics in remote environments and disaster-relief operations.
The MPU5 handheld radios furnished under a $5.1 million contract can share voice, video and text, as well as positioning and sensor data, and the antennas further extend…
WASHINGTON — If U.S. military planners’ worst-case scenario arose in the Pacific — having to defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion — American military forces would target Chinese amphibious ships.
Without them, according to Mark Cancian, who ran a 2022 wargame for…
Thales inks $2B deal to improve British Royal Navy’s maintenance
February 6, 2024
LONDON — Thales has signed a 15-year deal with the U.K. to use artificial intelligence and virtual reality to improve maintenance of the Royal Navy’s fleet, the Defence Ministry announced.
The £1.8 billion (U.S. $2.3 billion) contract with the French-based company’s…
Boeing pushes back T-7 plans due to faulty parts
February 6, 2024
Boeing said Friday that quality problems with parts slated for the T-7A Red Hawk training jet mean it will delay by several months delivering the next test aircraft to the Air Force.
Boeing is also now planning to start low-rate initial production on the T-7 in mid-2024, several months later than the company’s original plan. Boeing vice president and T-7 program manager Evelyn Moore told Defense…
Boeing’s defense unit reported $139 million in total losses on three of its key fixed-price development programs in the last quarter of 2023, the company reported Wednesday.
The firm confirmed to Defense News on Thursday that the losses were on the KC-46A Pegasus refueling…
US Navy works on war response plan amid Red Sea ship surge
January 31, 2024
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy is working on a new wartime response plan that would affect how ships and crews prepare and deploy for combat, according to the head of U.S. Fleet Forces Command.
This comes as the Navy experiences firsthand in the Middle East what it requires to…
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force’s three-month test of an electric aircraft at Duke Field in Florida wrapped up this month and included a simulated casualty evacuation exercise.
Beta Technologies said in a Monday release that its Alia aircraft took part in a casualty evacuation scenario with the 41st Rescue Squadron at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia this month. It was the first such simulated…
WASHINGTON — Boeing expects to start delivering the Air Force’s first field-ready MH-139A Grey Wolf helicopters later this year.
In a Friday release, Boeing said it finished construction on the first low-rate initial production Grey Wolf in late December. That helicopter…
Mideast waters challenge unmanned vessels, says US Navy leader
January 30, 2024
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Operational and environmental challenges in Middle Eastern waters are hindering the pace of innovation around unmanned surface vessels, according to the chief of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command.
“You bring things out, they look good on…
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. — The hangar was relatively empty. Not even the Lockheed Martin C-5, some 250 feet long and 65 feet high, filled the space outright.
No maintainers milled about, no drills whirred and no hammers clanged. But the steady hum of spinning blades echoed through the chamber at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, as a drone autonomously maneuvered around the transport…
