Defense

WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department on Friday approved a $1.6 billion foreign military sale of MQ-9B drones for Australia. The package includes up to 12 MQ-9B aircraft made by General Atomics, as well as Honeywell engines, ground control stations, training simulators, and various satellite terminals and communications equipment necessary for the MQ-9 pilot and sensor operator to control…

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department is pausing its efforts to field replacement software for the F-35′s troubled logistics system due to a lack of funding, the head of the F-35 program office said Thursday. In 2020, the F-35 program executive office announced plans to develop a replacement for the Lockheed Martin-made Autonomic Logistics Information System currently used by maintenance…

MELBOURNE, Australia – The first Northrop-Grumman RQ-4B Global Hawk unmanned aircraft destined for Japan took its maiden flight in the United States last week, as the Asian country ramps up its intelligence gathering capability to monitor North Korean and Chinese military activities. In a news release, Northrop-Grumman said the high-altitude, long endurance drone conducted its maiden flight…

WASHINGTON ― A duo of Democratic senators offered a bill Friday that could block the U.S. sale of F-35 fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates after the Biden administration acknowledged it is advancing the Trump-era deal. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., would require the administration make a raft of assurances and…