What The Future Of GPS, Bombers, Fighters Should Be

What The Future Of GPS, Bombers, Fighters Should Be
What The Future Of GPS, Bombers, Fighters Should Be

  The core task of the men and women who buy America’s weapons is to envision the adversaries and environments of tomorrow and buy forces that are up to the challenge. This involves generating a similar set of assumptions to those used by operational strategists. Today, three assumptions underpin U.S. acquisition strategy that will leave tomorrow’s forces…

Magic Carpet Ride: Navy Software Eases Carrier Landings

Magic Carpet Ride: Navy Software Eases Carrier Landings
Magic Carpet Ride: Navy Software Eases Carrier Landings

NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER: So easy, a journalist can do it. That could be the slogan for the Navy’s new Magic Carpet software, which simplifies the most stressful task in aviation: landing on deck of an aircraft carrier. I’d never pretend I could fly a real plane. But in a simulator, with Navy engineer Buddy…

Why Northrop Won The LRS Bomber

Why Northrop Won The LRS Bomber
Why Northrop Won The LRS Bomber

How did Northrop beat world’s largest defense companies, the Boeing-Lockheed Martin team, in the crucial competition for the Long Range Strike Bomber (LRSB)? First, and probably most importantly, Northrop Grumman is the only company in history to design, develop, manufacture, and maintain a long-range stealth bomber—the B-2 Spirit. Thanks to pre-award briefings, we know that the…

Boeing To Pentagon: Be Careful When You Pause IRAD Programs

Boeing To Pentagon: Be Careful When You Pause IRAD Programs
Boeing To Pentagon: Be Careful When You Pause IRAD Programs

PARIS: The Pentagon’s decision to pause as it reconsiders what path to pursue with the drone fighter known as UCLASS prompted Boeing to send a warning note today that the US military had better keep its commitments if it wants companies to invest their own money in new technologies. Pressed by Rep. Randy Forbes and Sen. John McCain…

Mabus Sticks With UCLASS Approach (& Unisex Uniforms); Hill Says, Not Enough

Mabus Sticks With UCLASS Approach (& Unisex Uniforms); Hill Says, Not Enough
Mabus Sticks With UCLASS Approach (& Unisex Uniforms); Hill Says, Not Enough

[UPDATED with Congressional reaction] ROSLYN, VA: Ray Mabus likes robots. The Navy Secretary has declared the F-35 will be “the last manned strike fighter” the service ever buys and invested heavily in unmanned aircraft, boats, and submersibles. But Mabus has frustrated drone advocates on one major program: the Unmanned Carrier-Launched Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) aircraft. This morning, Mabus defended…

Learning From Termites: Navy, Marines Seek New Breed Of Drones

Learning From Termites: Navy, Marines Seek New Breed Of Drones
Learning From Termites: Navy, Marines Seek New Breed Of Drones

NATIONAL HARBOR: Navy Secretary Ray Mabus may want to move drones to the top of his priorities, but what kind of unmanned systems do the Navy and Marine Corps want to buy? Don’t think Predator or even the Navy’s new 131-foot-wingspan Triton. Imagine a swarm of buzzing, scuttling or swimming robots that are smaller but smarter. While a…

X-47B Drone Set For Refueling Test Tomorrow

X-47B Drone Set For Refueling Test Tomorrow
X-47B Drone Set For Refueling Test Tomorrow

UPDATED Thursday with test results NATIONAL HARBOR, MD: “Tomorrow, actually, the weather looks good,” said Capt. Beau Duarte, the Navy’s head of carrier-launched drone programs — at least, he added cautiously, as of “right now.” If the weather holds, the Navy’s experimental X-47B drone will refuel in mid-air — the first time an unmanned aircraft has…

Northrop Ad To Run During Super Bowl: Hints At Next-Gen Bomber

Northrop Ad To Run During Super Bowl: Hints At Next-Gen Bomber
Northrop Ad To Run During Super Bowl: Hints At Next-Gen Bomber

http://youtu.be/H-vkdUBNOOc It will be one of the great weapons competitions of the 21st century. Northrop Grumman is competing against a team of Boeing and Lockheed Martin to build the Long Range Strike Bomber. The company has also created design teams to work on so-called sixth generation fighters for the Air Force and the Navy. With…

Navy Defends UCLASS Goals As Drone Decision Looms

Navy Defends UCLASS Goals As Drone Decision Looms
Navy Defends UCLASS Goals As Drone Decision Looms

It’s crunch time for UCLASS. On September 10th — after multiple delays — the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer and his Defense Acquisition Board will sit in judgment on the proposed combat drone. The question: how best to bring the robot revolution to the deck of the 90-year-old aircraft carrier. The “Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and…

X-47B Drone & Manned F-18 Take Off & Land Together In Historic Test

X-47B Drone & Manned F-18 Take Off & Land Together In Historic Test
X-47B Drone & Manned F-18 Take Off & Land Together In Historic Test

[UPDATED: Key test goal met] Robots may be the future of war, but for now they’re going to have to share the battlefield with humans and human-operated vehicles. That’s especially tricky in the tight confines of a Navy carrier’s flight deck, where one miscalculation could drive a drone into a manned aircraft, the bridge island, a…

Reps. Forbes, McIntyre Urge SecNav To ‘Examine’ UCLASS Approach

Reps. Forbes, McIntyre Urge SecNav To ‘Examine’ UCLASS Approach
Reps. Forbes, McIntyre Urge SecNav To ‘Examine’ UCLASS Approach

CAPITOL HILL: A bipartisan letter to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus argues that the Navy should reexamine the approach it’s taking to the stealthy carrier-based Unmanned Aerial System known as UCLASS. UCLASS letter fm Forbes to Sec. Mabus 9-17-2013 Reps. Randy Forbes and Mike McIntyre, the chairman and ranking members of the House Armed Services seapower and…

Adm. Winter: X-47 Aborted Bush Carrier Landing Not A Problem

Adm. Winter: X-47 Aborted Bush Carrier Landing Not A Problem
Adm. Winter: X-47 Aborted Bush Carrier Landing Not A Problem

AUVSI: The Navy’s experimental carrier stealth drone, the X-47B, would have made a third landing on the USS George H.W. Bush last month but for the fact the plane knew it was doing a test and decided to waive itself off, Adm. Mathias Winter said here this morning. Think about that. This is a plane…

Navy, Northrop Score Historic First With (Mostly) Successful X-47B Drone Carrier Landings

Navy, Northrop Score Historic First With (Mostly) Successful X-47B Drone Carrier Landings
Navy, Northrop Score Historic First With (Mostly) Successful X-47B Drone Carrier Landings

[Updated Thursday with details on third, aborted landing attempt] Two out of three ain’t bad, if you’re trying something no one’s ever done before. Landing on the narrow, pitching deck of a Navy aircraft carrier is one of the hardest things a human being can do. Today, for the first time in history, a robot…

Navy X-47B Drone Makes 1st ‘Touch & Go’ On Carrier

Navy X-47B Drone Makes 1st ‘Touch & Go’ On Carrier
Navy X-47B Drone Makes 1st ‘Touch & Go’ On Carrier

The eagle hasn’t exactly landed, but it did the next best thing. This afternoon, off the Virginia coast, the Navy’s experimental X-47B UCAS (Unmanned Combat Air System) became the first unmanned aircraft to do a “touch and go” on an aircraft carrier. That’s a major milestone for the pioneering drone, which just this Tuesday conducted…