DefenseNews

Green Beret’s Silver Star Sheds Light on US Ground Combat in Somalia

In this Thursday, Feb. 17, 2011 file photo, al-Shabab fighters march with their weapons during military exercises on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia. (AP Photo/Mohamed Sheikh Nor, File) An Army Green Beret was instrumental in retaking a key al-Shabab stronghold during a brutal firefight six years ago, newly released records of his Silver Star award reveal. When Somali soldiers, backed by…
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DefenseNews

Raytheon wins $2B contract for new nuclear cruise missile

WASHINGTON — Raytheon Technologies will get up to $2 billion to develop the U.S. Air Force’s Long Range Standoff Weapon system, a new nuclear-capable, air-launched cruise missile that will be carried by B-52 and B-21 bombers. The service on July 1 awarded Raytheon a…
DefenseNews

Lockheed’s F-35 topples competition in Swiss fighter contest

WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has emerged victorious in Switzerland’s $6.5 billion fighter competition, beating out entrants from Eurofighter, Dassault and Boeing. Over the course of the program, Switzerland plans to spend up to 6 billion Swiss francs (U.S. $6.5 billion) to buy 36 F-35A conventional-takeoff-and-landing models to replace its aging Hornet fleet…
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DefenseNews

Bell V-280 Valor tech demonstrator retires from flight

WASHINGTON — Bell’s future vertical lift technology demonstrator, the V-280 Valor tiltrotor, has finished its flying career, according to a June 24 company announcement. The demonstrator was built for the U.S. Army Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator program and flew for the first time in December 2017. It spent the last three-and-half years proving out the service’s requirements for…
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DefenseNews

Two reasons Britain could slow its purchase of the F-35

LONDON — The high costs of supporting F-35s and a failure to quickly integrate the MBDA Meteor missile to the aircraft could slow British plans to buy more of the jets, defence secretary Ben Wallace warned June 23. Wallace told Britain’s Parliamentary defence select…
DefenseNews

US Navy facing early challenges in modernizing dry docks for submarine maintenance

WASHINGTON – One of the U.S. Navy’s first major projects under a 20-year shipyard modernization effort is facing cost-overruns and schedule slips, an unexpected circumstance which the Navy is hoping to learn from as it continues through the $20-billion Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program. Though the Navy is predominately in a planning phase of program, generating computer models of…
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