DefenseNews

Four questions for Ed Barker, Army’s new electronic warfare executive

AUGUSTA, Ga. — During a season of leadership shakeups across U.S. Army acquisition offices, Brig. Gen. Ed Barker feels right at home. In June, Barker was named the boss of the Program Executive Office for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors, or PEO IEW&S, at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. He served as the office’s deputy for the previous two years. Barker succeeds Mark Kitz…
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DefenseNews

Troops need improved cyber education, US Army leaders say

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Commanders and their troops need to be better educated about the application and limits of cyber in major military operations, U.S. Army officials said. Attention paid to cyber as a formal discipline and general interest area has ballooned in recent years…
DefenseNews

New Army CIO wants to trade bureaucracy for speedier modernization

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Leonel Garciga, the U.S. Army’s new chief information officer, is known as a “bureaucracy hacker” in some circles. With such a moniker, indicating his dislike for red tape, come expectations. And one month into the role, he indicated he’s ready to sidestep outdated or unwieldy policy for much-needed modernization. “We’ve got to move fast, right? We have to be able to…
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DefenseNews

BAE Systems to buy Colorado-based Ball Aerospace for $5.55bn

LONDON — BAE Systems is moving to buy leading U.S. space and defense supplier Ball Aerospace, marking the Britain-based company’s biggest-ever acquisition. The $5.55 billion deal will boost BAE’s position across a range of activities, notably the space sector, where…
DefenseNews

Energy-saving airlift prototype to be built by JetZero for Air Force

JetZero, an aerospace startup focused on fuel-efficient jets, will build and fly a sleek new prototype aircraft that could one day join the Air Force’s mobility fleet, the service announced Wednesday. The Z-5 airframe — a blended wing body design with an oblong fuselage and long, skinny wings that looks more like a B-2 Spirit bomber than it does a Boeing 747 — was chosen over one other…
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DefenseNews

US Army seeks industry input on AI bill of materials

AUGUSTA, Ga. — U.S. Army officials are seeking industry input on a fledgling initiative that would require companies to disclose the provenance of their artificial intelligence algorithms. Under the AI bill of materials, or AI BOM, effort, prospective contractors would be…
DefenseNews

Japanese F-35s to make inaugural deployment to Australia

MELBOURNE, Australia — Japan will send its fifth-generation F-35 stealth fighters overseas for the first time later this month to take part in exercises in northern Australia. The Japan Air Self-Defense Force, or JASDF, said in a release Monday that four Lockheed-Martin F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters from the 3rd Air Wing at Misawa will undertake a two-week deployment. According to the…
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