Navy Hits Gas On Flying Gas Truck, CBARS: Will It Be Armed?

Navy Hits Gas On Flying Gas Truck, CBARS: Will It Be Armed?
Navy Hits Gas On Flying Gas Truck, CBARS: Will It Be Armed?

WASHINGTON: More gas. Less stealth. Maybe weapons. New name. Same money. Tighter schedule. That, in a dozen words, is how the Navy is evolving its program for carrier-launched drones. Since the cancellation of the original UCLASS drone– Unmanned Carrier-Launched Aerial Surveillance & Strike — Navy leaders have insisted they would get the simplified successor in…

Navy Scraps RMMV Mine Drone, Accelerates CBARS

Navy Scraps RMMV Mine Drone, Accelerates CBARS
Navy Scraps RMMV Mine Drone, Accelerates CBARS

UPDATED with Lockheed response WASHINGTON: The Navy will scrap the troubled RMMV drone meant to hunt mines from its controversial Littoral Combat Ships, replacing it with a different type of robot boat, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said today. That’s a decision a more responsive acquisition system would have made long ago, added Chief of Naval…

CBARS Drone Under OSD Review; Can A Tanker Become A Bomber?

CBARS Drone Under OSD Review; Can A Tanker Become A Bomber?
CBARS Drone Under OSD Review; Can A Tanker Become A Bomber?

WASHINGTON: The Navy’s new flying robot fuel truck, CBARS, is being reviewed by senior officials in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Breaking Defense has learned. Details about the current review are hard to come by. But our regular readers may be getting déjà vu, because the predecessor program, the UCLASS recon/strike drone, was stuck in OSD…

CNO Wants Future Warship With Built-In Cyber/EW

CNO Wants Future Warship With Built-In Cyber/EW
CNO Wants Future Warship With Built-In Cyber/EW

WASHINGTON: Shipbuilding is under pressure in the 2017 budget, but that didn’t stop the Chief of Naval Operations from sketching out his service’s “next warship” this morning. He wants ships built from the keel up for cyber and electronic warfare. He wants modular designs that can be updated at the speed of Moore’s Law. And…

Rep. Forbes Decries Cuts To Carrier Wings, Cruisers & UCLASS In Navy 2017 Budget

Rep. Forbes Decries Cuts To Carrier Wings, Cruisers & UCLASS In Navy 2017 Budget
Rep. Forbes Decries Cuts To Carrier Wings, Cruisers & UCLASS In Navy 2017 Budget

CAPITOL HILL: As predicted, House Seapower subcommittee chairman Randy Forbes was swift to slam the Navy’s 2017 budget request. I asked him about the Navy’s proposals to deactivate a carrier air wing, sideline seven Ticonderoga-class cruisers, and replace the UCLASS drone program with a drone fuel tanker with “limited strike” capabilities, CBARS. Here’s what the fiery…

Good-Bye, UCLASS; Hello, Unmanned Tanker, More F-35Cs In 2017 Budget

Good-Bye, UCLASS; Hello, Unmanned Tanker, More F-35Cs In 2017 Budget
Good-Bye, UCLASS; Hello, Unmanned Tanker, More F-35Cs In 2017 Budget

CORRECTED: Navy says new drone will have “limited strike” capability PENTAGON: After more than a year of intense debate over whether the Navy’s future UCLASS drone should be a long-range stealth bomber or a lightly armed scout, the Defense Department has chosen — neither. Instead, the 2017 budget proposes a program that is less ambitious…