Defense

Retention among surface warfare officers going into department head school is slightly down from last year, but numbers overall remain up as the service has launched several initiatives to keep SWOs in the service longer, according to officials. SWOs have historically departed their community at higher rates than the submarine and aviation communities, and the Navy has been working to keep more of…

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force’s next-generation tanker was supposed to be the ideal candidate for a fixed-price development program. Indeed, when Boeing first won the deal to build what’s now known as the KC-46, the defense contractor said it would use a “low-risk approach,” basing its design on the existing Boeing 767 commercial airplane. The contract was firm-fixed-price, meaning…

New radars and interceptors are headed to soldiers for testing in 2024 as the Army seeks to upgrade its air defense capabilities. After decades of relying on limited short-range air defense and Patriot batteries with technology dating to the early 1980s, the Army has pushed resources into new systems to defeat the growing threat of enemy missiles and drones. Defense News reported in November that…

MIAMI — A defense contractor at the center of one of the biggest bribery scandals in U.S. military history is expected to face additional charges following his return to the United States from Venezuela as part of a broader prisoner swap between the two countries, a federal prosecutor said Thursday. Leonard Glenn Francis, who is nicknamed “Fat Leonard,” faced a federal judge for the first…