Army inching closer to PrSM fielding with ‘successful’ qualification test flight

Army inching closer to PrSM fielding with ‘successful’ qualification test flight
Army inching closer to PrSM fielding with ‘successful’ qualification test flight

If a final test report is positive, the service can begin accepting early operational capability PrSM missiles before the start of 2024.

Sikorsky to reveal UK New Medium Helicopter production plans once requirements set

Sikorsky to reveal UK New Medium Helicopter production plans once requirements set
Sikorsky to reveal UK New Medium Helicopter production plans once requirements set

“We really just want to see the final tender and understand what the requirements are going to look like before we make a public announcement on our approach,” said Paul Lemmo, President of Sikorsky.

Army, Lockheed ink potential $4.5B deal for JAGM, Hellfire missiles

Army, Lockheed ink potential $4.5B deal for JAGM, Hellfire missiles
Army, Lockheed ink potential $4.5B deal for JAGM, Hellfire missiles

The first installment is worth some $439 million, with an option for more over coming years.

To refill Army stockpiles, multi-year munition buys are ‘in the works’: Official

To refill Army stockpiles, multi-year munition buys are ‘in the works’: Official
To refill Army stockpiles, multi-year munition buys are ‘in the works’: Official

At a time when the US is continuing to pledge more and more weapons to Ukraine, the Army is eyeing ways to overcome ammunition production challenges.

Raytheon moving corporate headquarters to DC area, joining other defense primes

Raytheon moving corporate headquarters to DC area, joining other defense primes
Raytheon moving corporate headquarters to DC area, joining other defense primes

The company hopes new HQ location will “increase agility” in doing government and commercial business.

OPIR Missile Warning Sats Plow Ahead Amid $$ Turmoil

OPIR Missile Warning Sats Plow Ahead Amid $$ Turmoil
OPIR Missile Warning Sats Plow Ahead Amid $$ Turmoil

Next-Gen OPIR program is moving right along as Lockheed and Raytheon keep their heads down amid funding discussions between the Air Force and Congress.

Tomahawk Vs. LRASM: Raytheon Gets $119M For Anti-Ship Missile

Tomahawk Vs. LRASM: Raytheon Gets $119M For Anti-Ship Missile
Tomahawk Vs. LRASM: Raytheon Gets $119M For Anti-Ship Missile

WASHINGTON: Just three years ago, the Navy faced the Russian and Chinese fleets with just one aging, short-range anti-ship missile, the Harpoon. Today, it’s successfully test-fired at least four very different missile types and may actually need to narrow down. There’s the converted SM-6 anti-aircraft missile as the lightest, fastest option and the Kongsberg Naval…

Boeing Upgrades Air Defense Vs. Russians: Avenger SHORAD

Boeing Upgrades Air Defense Vs. Russians: Avenger SHORAD
Boeing Upgrades Air Defense Vs. Russians: Avenger SHORAD

Increasingly anxious about Russian drones and helicopters, the US Army is inviting contractors to demonstrate Short-Range Air Defense systems at a “SHORAD shoot-off” this September. The closest thing to an incumbent in this race is Boeing, which developed the Army’s current Avenger, an old-school unarmored Humvee carrying Stinger missile pods. Now Boeing has upgraded the…

F-35 Wins Denmark Competition: Trounces Super Hornet, Eurofighter

F-35 Wins Denmark Competition: Trounces Super Hornet, Eurofighter
F-35 Wins Denmark Competition: Trounces Super Hornet, Eurofighter

[UPDATING with Aboulafia analysis of questionable pricing] The F-35 just won a competition — and it wasn’t even close. In every category, from combat performance to cost, the Danish government rated Lockheed’s F-35A Joint Strike Fighter as superior to Airbus’s Eurofighter Typhoon and Boeing’s F/A-18F Super Hornet. What’s striking here is not that the F-35 won: Denmark…

Bell Puts Wings On Its Next-Gen Tiltrotor, V-280

Bell Puts Wings On Its Next-Gen Tiltrotor, V-280
Bell Puts Wings On Its Next-Gen Tiltrotor, V-280

The future of tilt rotor aviation is taking shape, quite literally, at the Bell Helicopter factory in Fort Worth, where the company attached the wing of its prototype V-280 Valor to the fuselage. Now we can see in real life, not just computer drawings, what one vision for the military’s Future Vertical Lift aircraft will look…

Rites of Spring: Mating V-280 Wing And Fuselage

Rites of Spring: Mating V-280 Wing And Fuselage
Rites of Spring: Mating V-280 Wing And Fuselage

CORRECTED: 280 knots equals 322 mph, not 245. Spring has sprung and at the Bell Helicopter factory in Amarillo, Texas, it’s mating season, of a sort. If all goes well, by September of next year a bird of a different feather will take flight – the V-280 Valor, a medium-lift tiltrotor transport whose wing and…

It’s ‘War’ Twixt Appropriators & Authorizers Over RD-180s: Sen. Durbin

It’s ‘War’ Twixt Appropriators & Authorizers Over RD-180s: Sen. Durbin
It’s ‘War’ Twixt Appropriators & Authorizers Over RD-180s: Sen. Durbin

CAPITOL HILL: The Senate battle over Russian rockets keeps rocking. Senators Dick Durbin and Richard Shelby sent most of this morning’s defense appropriations hearing defending the Pentagon’s plan to keep using the cheap and technologically reliable but politically toxic RD-180 until an American-made replacement is ready, sometime around 2020-2021. Durbin and Shelby denounced the effort…

McCain Warns Shelby Off On RD-180; Writes SecDef

McCain Warns Shelby Off On RD-180; Writes SecDef
McCain Warns Shelby Off On RD-180; Writes SecDef

WASHINGTON: Sen. John McCain has fired another salvo at the United Launch Alliance over its use of Russian-made RD-180 rocket engines, telling Defense Secretary Ash Carter he wants an audit of ULA’s “business systems” and he wants that and more information by Dec. 21. This latest kerfuffle arose after ULA’s decided to refrain from bidding for the Air Force’s…

Tanker Fiasco Again? Boeing-Lockheed Protest Northrop’s LRSB Win

Tanker Fiasco Again? Boeing-Lockheed Protest Northrop’s LRSB Win
Tanker Fiasco Again? Boeing-Lockheed Protest Northrop’s LRSB Win

UPDATED: Adds Air Force, Aboulafia, Callan, And Northrop Grumman Comments WASHINGTON: To no one’s surprise, the Boeing-Lockheed team has filed a formal protest against the award to Northrop Grumman of the $80 billion Long Range Strike Bomber contract. Industry sources had been talking of strategies to prosecute or defend against a protest for at least…