DefenseNews

Air Force general says of Army’s long range precision fires goal: ‘It’s stupid’

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force general in charge of managing the service’s bomber inventory slammed the Army’s new plan to base long-range missiles in the Pacific, calling the idea expensive, duplicative and “stupid.” “Why in the world would we entertain a brutally expensive idea when we don’t, as the [Defense] Department, have the money to go do that?” Gen. Timothy Ray, who…
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DefenseNews

Lockheed scores $1.1B contract to build US Army’s guided rocket on heels of extended-range test

WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin scored a $1.1 billion contract from the U.S. Army to build another 11,000 Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System rockets, the company announced March 30. The award came on the heels of another successful test of an extended-range version in development. The ER-GMLRS traveled more than 135 kilometers in the test at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, according to…
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DefenseNews

US, Turkey remain divided over purchase of Russia’s S-400s

ANKARA, Turkey — Top U.S. and Turkish diplomats failed on Wednesday to overcome sharp differences over Turkey’s purchase of an advanced Russian air defense system, which Washington sees as a security threat. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Turkish journalists, following a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Brussels, that Turkey would not step back from its…
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DefenseNews

F-35 program moves too slowly in deploying software, says government watchdog

WASHINGTON — The F-35 program aims to use agile software development practices to ensure the Joint Strike Fighter can quickly receive fresh code to meet emerging threats, but production of new software is still lagging behind schedule, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a March 18 report. In 2018, the F-35 Joint Program Office announced a plan to begin releasing small…
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