WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army has taken receipt of its light and medium Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV) prototypes from industry teams and are putting them through the paces this year ahead of a major company-level soldier assessment in 2022.
The service took delivery of the first of four RCV-Light vehicles from a QinetiQ North America and Pratt Miller team — which won the contract to produce…
Autonomous Drones Proved Themselves in Army Ammo Resupply Tests. Now, the XVIII Airborne Wants In
March 16, 2021
Soldiers participating in Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiment (AEWE) 2021 at Fort Benning, Georgia carry two five-gallon water cans strapped together that were delivered by an autonomous quadcopter. (U.S. Army)
Army maneuver officials are pushing for additional testing…
New US Army doctrine coming summer 2022
March 16, 2021
WASHINGTON — The Army is expected to release its new doctrine, one that describes how the service will operate in the future across air, land, sea, space and cyberspace, in summer 2022, Lt. Gen. D. Scott McKean, the director of the Army Futures and Concepts Center under…
LONDON — Britain’s armored fighting vehicle capabilities have been labelled as “deplorable” in a report released by the parliamentary Defence Committee on March 14.
Actually, “deplorable” was one of the kinder terms used by the committee to describe the Army’s reasons for letting its armored vehicle fleet atrophy over the last two decades.
“The recent history of the British…
The Air Force has its first F-15EX
March 12, 2021
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force took delivery March 10 of the first F-15EX from Boeing and will soon begin testing the new jet, the service said Thursday.
The Air Force signed off on the acceptance of the first F-15EX at the company’s St. Louis facility, the service…
Artist rendition of Northrop Grumman’s new Sky Viper 20mm cannon for the Army’s Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) effort. (Courtesy Northrop Grumman)
Northrop Grumman announced Wednesday that it is building a new 20mm cannon for the Army‘s Future…
Northrop unveils new ‘Sky Viper’ chain gun as US Army considers weapons for future helos
March 11, 2021
WASHINGTON — Northrop Grumman is initiating the build of a first production representative prototype of its 20mm chain gun dubbed “Sky Viper” for the U.S. Army to evaluate for Future Vertical Lift aircraft, the company said March 10 during a media briefing.
The service is already deep into the evaluation of another 20mm weapon system — the XM915 Gatling gun from General Dynamics…
GM Defense has a new chief engineer
March 10, 2021
WASHINGTON — GM Defense has brought on Rick Kewley as its new executive chief engineer, who will be in charge of all engineering and program execution at the General Motors subsidiary, according to a March 10 company statement.
Kewley has a long history at GM — a…
WASHINGTON — A new report from the Center for American Progress calls for a radical overhaul of the U.S. security assistance program, including shifting roughly $7 billion in funding streams from the Pentagon to the State Department to ensure stronger, more cohesive…
WASHINGTON — The Army National Guard has seen three UH-60 L-model Black Hawk utility helicopter crashes on U.S. soil in just over a year. Two of those happened within the first five weeks of 2021. But despite the pattern of incidents involving Guard Black Hawks, the Army’s aviation director in charge of operations, plans and training told Defense News in a recent interview that he did not…
