CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — As India struggles to develop its own medium-altitude, long-endurance drones, the government pulled the trigger this month on a purchase of 31 MQ-9Bs from General Atomics.
The tri-service buy is worth 320 billion rupees, or US$3.8 billion, with 15 SeaGuardians to be delivered to the Indian Navy (IN) and eight SkyGuardians each for the Indian Air Force and Indian…
Bell Textron will build the U.S. Army’s Future Long Range Assault Aircraft, or FLRAA, fuselages in Wichita, Kansas, the company announced this week.
The company won the Army’s bid to build FLRAA in late 2022 following a competition in which it and a Sikorsky-Boeing team…
Navy extending service lives of three cruisers
November 8, 2024
The Navy is keeping three cruisers in service for three additional years each – just after extending the service life for 12 destroyers.
The service announced Monday that the Gettysburg, Chosin, and Cape St. George will now remain in service up until fiscal year 2029…
Air Force Global Strike Command carried out a test of an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile late Tuesday night. The ICBM, which was equipped with multiple targeted reentry vehicles, launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at about 11 p.m. Pacific time. It then flew about 4,200 miles, at roughly 15,000 miles per hour, to a ballistic missile test site in the…
‘Fat Leonard,’ Navy scandal mastermind, sentenced to 15 years
November 7, 2024
SAN DIEGO — Former military defense contractor Leonard “Fat Leonard” Francis was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison for masterminding a decade-long bribery scheme that swept up dozens of U.S. Navy officers, federal prosecutors said.
U.S. District Judge Janis L.
Boeing factory strike ends as machinists vote to accept contract
November 7, 2024
SEATTLE — Factory workers at Boeing voted to accept a contract offer and end their strike after more than seven weeks, clearing the way for the aerospace giant to resume production of its bestselling airliner and generate much-needed cash.
Leaders of the International…
Why the Defense Department needs a chief economist
November 5, 2024
The Department of Defense budget is growing, and the DOD is spending more money in novel industries and nontraditional areas than ever before. To ensure the DOD spends smartly in this new environment, Congress should authorize a chief economist to keep the DOD thinking about the dollars and cents of it all.
Since 2000, the DOD has spent more than $15 trillion dollars and has an anticipated budget…
Air Force to send bomber task force to Europe
November 5, 2024
The Air Force plans to soon send its latest task force of strategic bombers to Europe to train with NATO allies.
U.S. Air Forces Europe-Air Forces Africa said on Friday that the bomber task force deployment will begin “in the coming days,” and would last several weeks.
The Army’s 1st Multi-Domain Task Force has used a small number of Kraus Hamdani Aerospace K1000 Ultra Long-Endurance, solar-powered unmanned aircraft system across the Pacific theater in places like the Philippines and Guam in recent years. Now the Pentagon has ordered $20…
Italian Navy tasks Fincantieri to design drone-laden warships
November 4, 2024
ROME — The Italian Navy’s is planning for a future in which swarms of airborne, surface and undersea drones will deploy from its ships and has challenged shipyard Fincantieri to build and adapt vessels which are ready for the task.
“We expect new navy vessels in ten years will be using a large number of drones and we want to be prepared,” said Capt. Gianluca Marcilli, who heads the…
