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…
Bombardier wins US Army contract for new spy plane prototype
January 4, 2024
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army awarded a contract to Bombardier Defense to provide at least one Global 6500 aircraft to serve as a prototype airframe for a new spy plane program, the service announced Wednesday.
The firm-fixed-price contract, awarded Dec. 12, includes an…
Gen. Jim Slife sworn in as Air Force vice chief of staff
January 4, 2024
Gen. Jim Slife stepped into the role of Air Force vice chief of staff at a Dec. 29 ceremony at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, ending the service’s three-month stretch without Senate-confirmed officers in its top two leadership posts.
Slife’s assignment to…
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…
The Marine Corps has so far trained 100 leathernecks as MQ-9 pilots as it seeks to fill out new squadrons with the uncrewed system to extend reach and reconnaissance for its own drone program.
The Corps first leased the MQ-9 Reaper in 2018 and only received funding to…
Army numbers smallest since WWII — what units face cuts in 2024?
December 29, 2023
The new year will likely prove to be one of significant force structure changes for the Army, according to its senior leaders.
Although the service has maintained for years that embracing multidomain operations will require it to “transform” its force structure into one…
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…
Beyond the Osprey: DARPA wants high-speed vertical takeoff X-plane
December 28, 2023
WASHINGTON — The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is working with four companies to design an experimental vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft that can fly at speeds far faster than the V-22 Osprey.
The collaboration comes as the U.S. military considers how it…
Navy creates program office to manage nuclear carrier defuelings
November 30, 2023
ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy has established a new program office to plan and manage aircraft carrier inactivations, defuelings and dismantlements, as the service readies for that work to become more common.
The Navy still hasn’t fully completed the first…
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army picked two of the world’s largest defense contractors to develop spying and jamming payloads for drones that can be catapulted from a moving vehicle or larger aircraft.
The service’s Program Executive Office for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors, or PEO IEW&S, on Nov. 29 named Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman as the winners of other transaction…
