LONDON — Britain has confirmed it will acquire 14 Boeing-made Chinook helicopters, but the government has prolonged the delivery schedule over the next decade years due to budget issues.
The deal was made through the U.S. Defense Department’s Foreign Military Sales process and will see Britain pay £1.4 billion (U.S. $2 billion) for the helicopters and associated equipment. Deliveries are…
The F-22 is going away, eventually. But not before the Air Force gets comfortable with its successor.
May 14, 2021
WASHINGTON — Top Air Force officials are now convinced the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor lacks the magazine depth and range needed to carry it into the next decade as the service’s air superiority fighter of choice.
But the exact timing of its retirement will depend on…
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army’s Precision Strike Missile ranged 400 kilometers — roughly 250 miles — in a test shot at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, on May 12, Lockheed Martin announced.
The test marks the farthest the PrSM has flown so far, which is roughly…
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army is scrapping its Stryker Mobile Gun Systems in favor of new lethality upgrades for its fleet of combat vehicles, the service announced in a May 12 statement.
The Army decided to divest the gun systems by the end of fiscal 2022 after “a comprehensive analysis highlighted obsolescence and systemic issues with the system’s dated cannon and automatic loader,”…
COVID-19 demonstrated gaps in the U.S. Navy’s maritime bio-preparedness. Through cruise lines’ struggle for survival, the pandemic will continue to offer a unique test bed for tactics, techniques and procedures, or TTP, as well as technologies to mitigate respiratory…
WASHINGTON — The Air Force will continue pushing for the retirement of its oldest Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawks, the service’s top officials said Friday, potentially setting up another fight with Congress about the future of the embattled surveillance drone.
…
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army is tapping nontraditional businesses to tackle the challenge of future robotic combat vehicle sustainment, according to a statement from the Army Applications Laboratory.
The AAL is establishing a cohort of innovators “who can develop hardware and software components around sensors and sensor data to gather, fuse and interpret RCV sustainment requirements and…
WASHINGTON — More than 130 members of the House of Representatives have signed a letter urging continued financial support for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, signaling a potential roadblock for lawmakers hoping to cut F-35 procurement in fiscal 2022.
The April…
WASHINGTON — The Air Force carried out the first flight test of a “Skyborg” drone last month with an Kratos UTAP-22 Mako equipped with a bespoke autonomy system, moving the service one step closer to fielding an uncrewed “loyal wingman” for human pilots.
During…
PARIS – Egypt has bought 30 more Rafale aircraft from France, according to statements issued on Tuesday by the Egyptian and French defense ministries and Dassault Aviation, the aircraft’s manufacturer.
The new acquisition complements the first Egyptian purchase of 24 Rafales six years ago and will up the Rafale fleet in the Egyptian Air Force to 54, making it the second-largest in the world…
