Army Boosts Investment In Lasers

Army Boosts Investment In Lasers
Army Boosts Investment In Lasers

AUSA: The Army is investing more and more money in lasers to defeat incoming rockets and enemy drones. Across the Air & Missile Defense (AMD) portfolio, “we put over 50 percent of our S&T (Science and Technology) money going towards directed energy projects,” up from about a third previously, said the AMD modernization director, Brig. Gen.…

AUDS Job: Electrons & Bullets Take Down Drones

AUDS Job: Electrons & Bullets Take Down Drones
AUDS Job: Electrons & Bullets Take Down Drones

The Air Force is buying a static version of AUDS for base defense, mounted in a CONEX shipping container for ease of transport and set-up. For the Army, Northrop is proposing to integrate AUDS onto the workhorse Stryker vehicle.

Robot Aircraft For Robot Tanks: GD & AeroVironment Team Up

Robot Aircraft For Robot Tanks: GD & AeroVironment Team Up
Robot Aircraft For Robot Tanks: GD & AeroVironment Team Up

AUSA: The Marines want their Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle to carry a scout drone that can look for threats and target them with loitering strike missiles or drones. Now General Dynamics Land Systems and drone maker AeroVironment are teaming up to offer the same built-in drone for future Army vehicles. The two companies announced here today that they’ve…

Army Wants Revolutionary Scout Aircraft For $30 Million, Same As Apache E

Army Wants Revolutionary Scout Aircraft For $30 Million, Same As Apache E
Army Wants Revolutionary Scout Aircraft For $30 Million, Same As Apache E

The Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) must have enough artificial intelligence to fly unmanned at least part of the time, a secure network to control drones, and combination of speed and range that’s impossible for traditional helicopters.

Air Force Busts Out Credit Cards To Buy High Tech Gear

Air Force Busts Out Credit Cards To Buy High Tech Gear
Air Force Busts Out Credit Cards To Buy High Tech Gear

The Air Force can be an “angel investor” for some startups, said Will Roper, the service’s top acquisition official.

Navy Enters Drone Age, Taps Boeing for MQ-25

Navy Enters Drone Age, Taps Boeing for MQ-25
Navy Enters Drone Age, Taps Boeing for MQ-25

Loaded with jet fuel, the drones will vastly extend the ranges of carrier-based aircraft operating in the expanses of the western Pacific. That lets the Navy strike deeper into China’s layered defenses while keeping the big decks out of range of most of China’s anti-ship missiles.

Did We Put This Bug In SCO’s Ear? MALD-X Tested For Swarm EW

Did We Put This Bug In SCO’s Ear? MALD-X Tested For Swarm EW
Did We Put This Bug In SCO’s Ear? MALD-X Tested For Swarm EW

Today, the Defense Department announced that MALD-X (Miniature Air-Launched Decoy) successfully completed a “a complex free flight demonstration of advanced electronic warfare techniques.”

Special Ops Command To Hold Flyoff Of Tiny Drones

Special Ops Command To Hold Flyoff Of Tiny Drones
Special Ops Command To Hold Flyoff Of Tiny Drones

Using lessons from places like Niger, commandos are looking for drones to carry blood to injured troops, as well as small systems that can fly indoors, through tunnels, swarm, and operate when being jammed.

Killer Angel On Your Shoulder: Army’s Future Armed Reconnaissance Aircraft

Killer Angel On Your Shoulder: Army’s Future Armed Reconnaissance Aircraft
Killer Angel On Your Shoulder: Army’s Future Armed Reconnaissance Aircraft

Manned air and ground forces would work together and protect each other along the front line, while relatively expendable drones and missiles go deep into enemy airspace.

It’s Raytheon Vs. Dynetics/Lockheed For Army’s 100 kW Laser

It’s Raytheon Vs. Dynetics/Lockheed For Army’s 100 kW Laser
It’s Raytheon Vs. Dynetics/Lockheed For Army’s 100 kW Laser

Lockheed is as close to an incumbent as you get in the rapidly evolving world of high-energy fiber lasers. Raytheon, by contrast, only recently made a big play for laser weapons, but they can draw on their experience with lower-powered but exquisitely tuned laser sensors.

USAF Wants Drone Swarms, AI To Buy Space

USAF Wants Drone Swarms, AI To Buy Space
USAF Wants Drone Swarms, AI To Buy Space

The Air Force wants more AI, cloud computing, autonomous drone swarms and thousands of tiny satellites. But most of these projects are only now getting off the ground at the Pentagon, making the service’s new “Flight Path” a little cloudy.

Israel Boosts Missile Defense By $8 Billion

Israel Boosts Missile Defense By $8 Billion
Israel Boosts Missile Defense By $8 Billion

TEL AVIV: Faced with a growing missile threat, Israel will add $8 billion to improve its active and passive missile defense systems. This in addition to the money already allocated for this by the Israeli government and the U.S administration. Israeli sources said July 24 that the additional funds reflect the “growing threat” based on…

Sea Dragon II: Streamline Marine Logistics For Future War

Sea Dragon II: Streamline Marine Logistics For Future War
Sea Dragon II: Streamline Marine Logistics For Future War

The concepts the Warfighting Lab comes up with aren’t holy writ, but rather a baseline for young Marines to build on, “a point from which to deviate,” said Maj. J.B. Persons, a special projects officer at MCWL. “Give Marines new tools or toys, and they’ll surprise you every time.”

US Needs Hi-Lo Mix Of ‘Exquisite’ & Affordable ISR: Intel Official

US Needs Hi-Lo Mix Of ‘Exquisite’ & Affordable ISR: Intel Official
US Needs Hi-Lo Mix Of ‘Exquisite’ & Affordable ISR: Intel Official

“Those will be debates we’ll have over the next couple of years, and those are some tough choices,” intelligence official Kevin Sherman told me. “Do we reduce some of those capabilities have been very helpful in the CT (counter-terrorism) fight, that a lot of our combatant commands have relied on, in order to buy more exquisite things?”