As delays in getting ships delivered on time worsen, Navy acquisition chief James Geurts said, “It is critical for our Navy that we get ships, we get them on the schedule we contract for them, and that we have high confidence in our shipbuilders to deliver.”
By Paul McLearyGA-ASI’s MQ-9B: The right UAV for persistence, power, and performance
When assessing the state of the art of unmanned aerial systems, it’s critical to be very clear about what various aircraft can and can’t do – and could never do.
“Last year we hired 1,800 people, which was the most hired for 30 years I think,” BIW President Dirk Lesko said. “We probably would have hired 500 or 600 more people last year if we could have.”
By Paul McLeary
Gen. Tod Wolters reveals he’s built new infrastructure in Spain, waiting for the Navy to add two more destroyers to the four already there.
By Paul McLeary
The Army is contributing Long-Range Army Fires, troops on the ground, and Sentinel radar. The Navy is bringing F-35Cs and a destroyer; and the Air Force will bring F-22 and F-35 fighter jets.
By Theresa Hitchens
The Navy is rushing to fix its long-broken ship repair and overhaul pipeline as the service prepares itself for “a generational-level of submarine work.”
By Paul McLeary
Miitary lasers are getting more and more powerful, fast. But raw power isn’t all you need for a workable weapon.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The Navy thinks it will need at least $40 billion a year to maintain its new fleet — but admits that they haven’t actually added it all up yet.
By Paul McLeary
A major overhaul is coming in software for missile warning
Space Systems Command’s FORGE program is the first, major missile-warning software modernization effort in 20 years.
SAN DIEGO: If the Navy ever hopes to reach its goal of a 355-ship fleet, it won’t be by simply building new hulls and launching them. Instead, the admirals have long recognized they’ll have to extend the lives of dozens of ships already long in the tooth — and do so at a time when…
By Paul McLeary
“We’ve spent a lot of time over the past years playing defense,” Rear Adm. Ronald Boxall, director of surface warfare, said at the West 2019 conference here. “The best defense is a good offense, and the idea that we will go after the threat — at range — is something that we have to be able to do.”
By Paul McLeary
The Navy may back off its much-publicized call for a 355-ship fleet and look at new options like unmanned vessels, the Chief of Naval Operations said.
By Paul McLeary
Smaller unmanned vessels will act as expendable scouts and decoys, larger ones — over 50 meters — will carry masses of missiles, while manned ships will carry both the largest systems and the human beings essential for rapid adaptation in combat.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
WASHINGTON: The once-revolutionary prospects of the Navy’s Zumwalt-class destroyer continue to be whittled away. Having lost some of its touted stealth capabilities and suffered a series of engine and electrical problems, now it’s likely to ditch its long-troubled gun. The Advanced Gun System on the Zumwalt never lived up to its billing. When the Navy…
By Paul McLeary
Despite increasing uncertainty over President Trump’s surprise proposal to cut $33 billion from defense, the Pentagon’s R&D chief says he’s confident more cash will be pumped into laser weapons and new space capabilities.
By Paul McLeary
One variant, in Army colors, has missile racks sticking out of what was originally the passenger cabin — a conversion that units could potentially install or remove as needed in the field. The other, with Marine Corps markings, is a sleeker thoroughbred gunship with internal weapons bays, stealth features, and folding wings to fit in shipboard hangars.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
