Several of the U.S. Navy’s top shipbuilding programs are running one year to three years behind schedule, as the service and the industrial base grapple with workforce and management challenges.
Navy leaders conducted a 45-day review of its shipbuilding portfolio, following news in January that a first-of-class guided-missile frigate was behind schedule due in part to a workforce shortage at…
NAVAL AIR STATION LEMOORE, Calif. — From the air control tower at the center of the U.S. Navy’s largest jet base, the roar of fighter engines is inescapable.
It’s coming from the rows of F/A-18E/F Super Hornets — and, increasingly, F-35C Joint Strike Fighters — on…
The Air Force’s version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter can fly in lightning and thunderstorms again after the service lifted a restriction that had been in place for four years.
The F-35 Joint Program Office confirmed in an email that the 2020 standoff restriction placed…
“The changing character of war is coming upon us,” said Gen. David W. Allvin, the Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, warning, “The theater of war is going to require us to fight different. This will be part of the reinvention of our Air Force and airpower into the future.”
That reinvention should include thinking smaller and embracing small drones. Other services employ airpower in…
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office is standing up a joint team to execute the Pentagon’s vision for an air and missile defense architecture for Guam, its director told Defense News.
Under Secretary of Defense for…
US Army refreshes competition for short-range laser
April 1, 2024
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. Army is evaluating additional 50-kilowatt platforms as it seeks to buy short-range air defense laser weapons, even as its initial four prototypes deploy in U.S. Central Command’s area of operations, a service official told Defense News.
Three…
A Northrop Grumman official on Monday attributed the explosive projected cost growth of the U.S. Air Force’s next intercontinental ballistic missile to the service’s design changes, including to the nuclear missile’s silo and connecting cables.
The Air Force’s original plan for modernizing its ICBM enterprise included keeping nearly all its existing copper cabling in place to be reused for…
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. Navy is heading into a major test of a hypersonic weapon that will help determine the way ahead for a joint development program with the U.S. Army, according to the Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office director.
“The…
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. Army’s recently completed conventional fires study determined the service should focus on more autonomous artillery systems with greater range and improved mobility, the Army Futures Command chief said Wednesday.
Speaking at the Association of…
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — Taiwan’s plan to field four MQ-9B SkyGuardian drones has advanced thanks to a second contract awarded to General Atomics Aeronautical Systems.
The island nation’s purchase comes as its own efforts to field a similar domestically developed platform falter.
The U.S. Defense Department signed the $250 million deal with General Atomics for the final two MQ-9Bs on…
