Defense

ROME — A long-running tussle between Italy’s Air Force and Navy over the F35-B jet is coming to a head as deadlines approach for deciding who gets the next aircraft to roll off the production line and where it will be based. Italy’s planned order for 30 of the short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing aircraft is to be split by the services, with each receiving 15, in addition to the 60 F35-As…

WASHINGTON – The Navy’s first stealth destroyer, USS Zumwalt, test fired an SM-2 missile out of its MK 57 vertical launch system Oct. 13, the Navy announced Monday afternoon. The test, which took place on the Naval Air Weapons Center Weapons Division Sea Test Range, near Point Mugu, California, was a first for the hull. Zumwalt was delivered to the fleet earlier this year almost four years…

ANKARA, Turkey — NATO member Turkey has tested its Russian-made S-400 air defense system, Turkish media reported Friday, raising the specter of a new standoff with the United States. The television channel A Haber, which is close to the government, said on its website that Turkey’s military test-fired the Russian S-400 in the Black Sea province of Sinop. It based its reports on an amateur…

WASHINGTON – Comparing it to the challenges faced with the Aegis Combat System and the creating of the nuclear-powered Navy, the US Navy’s top officer has tasked a former surface warfare officer turned engineering duty officer to create the powerful, all-connecting network it thinks it needs to fight and win against a high-end foe like China. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday…