WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army continued its yearslong tradition of not funding the procurement of the latest variant of the CH-47F Chinook cargo helicopter in favor of future programs in its fiscal 2022 budget request, but House appropriators are pushing back.
Some lawmakers are again calling for enough funding to buy the aircraft for the active force. The House Appropriations Committee’s FY22…
WASHINGTON — Bell’s future vertical lift technology demonstrator, the V-280 Valor tiltrotor, has finished its flying career, according to a June 24 company announcement.
The demonstrator was built for the U.S. Army Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator program and…
LONDON — The high costs of supporting F-35s and a failure to quickly integrate the MBDA Meteor missile to the aircraft could slow British plans to buy more of the jets, defence secretary Ben Wallace warned June 23.
Wallace told Britain’s Parliamentary defence select…
A U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook departs from Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, Dec. 27, 2009. (Francisco V. Govea II/U.S. Air Force)
Clear, concise decision-making. That’s what American citizens — and U.S. allies — expect from our government leaders. Unfortunately, that isn’t what we’re getting, specifically regarding defense programs and the future of global military…
WASHINGTON – One of the U.S. Navy’s first major projects under a 20-year shipyard modernization effort is facing cost-overruns and schedule slips, an unexpected circumstance which the Navy is hoping to learn from as it continues through the $20-billion Shipyard…
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army is planning to field its first mobile medium-range missile battery no later than September 2023 with three more batteries to follow, according to FY22 budget justification documents.
Defense News was first to report that the Army was pursuing…
More cost overruns are coming for Boeing as the KC-46 program logs another two technical deficiencies
June 18, 2021
WASHINGTON — Boeing will have to pay to fix two new technical problems afflicting the KC-46 refueling tanker, which the U.S. Air Force has designated as “category 1” deficiencies that rank among the program’s most critical issues.
The Air Force has discovered that drain tubes in the KC-46′s air refueling receptacle — which are used to remove water from the aircraft — can become…
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army is set to begin development and integration of a high-power microwave capability to destroy small drone threats beginning in fiscal 2022, according to budget justification documents released with the financial request.
The service plans to…
Another Boeing-Airbus tanker war is coming soon
June 17, 2021
WASHINGTON — Boeing and Airbus could find themselves duking it out as early as next year to provide aerial refueling aircraft to the U.S. Air Force, reigniting a bitter battle between Boeing’s KC-46 and Airbus’s A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport.
The Air Force on…
WASHINGTON — House and Senate lawmakers are again pushing to boost the Missile Defense Agency’s budget after Congress added $1.3 billion last fiscal year.
The MDA’s request in fiscal 2022 focuses on the development of future capabilities including a next-generation interceptor for homeland missile defense, a hypersonic defensive capability and space-based tracking critical to detecting…
