Don’t Retire U-2, Again! Sen. Feinstein, Rep. Schiff Urge Air Force To Postpone

Don’t Retire U-2, Again! Sen. Feinstein, Rep. Schiff Urge Air Force To Postpone
Don’t Retire U-2, Again! Sen. Feinstein, Rep. Schiff Urge Air Force To Postpone

WASHINGTON: Either Lockheed Martin’s legendary U-2 spy plane does things that Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk drone can’t, or it doesn’t. If the U-2 doesn’t, then, the Air Force argues, it should be retired by 2019. After several flip flops in recent years, that is the service’s current position: We need to retire the U-2 because we’re upgrading the…

Air Force Strategy on UH-1N: Wait and Hurry Up

Air Force Strategy on UH-1N: Wait and Hurry Up
Air Force Strategy on UH-1N: Wait and Hurry Up

What could justify the Air Force awarding a sole source contract for helicopters worth close to a billion – that’s a thousand millions – dollars? Pick an answer: A classified joint service military exercise called Mighty Guardian in which some of the 62 aging UH-1N Huey helicopters failed their assignment to carry security forces to…

Navy To Try New Fast Acquisition Approach

Navy To Try New Fast Acquisition Approach
Navy To Try New Fast Acquisition Approach

CAPITOL HILL: The Navy’s 2017 budget will include a new authority similar to the Air Force’s Rapid Capability Office to improve the speed with which it can deploy new capabilities, especially classified ones, the head of Navy acquisition told the House Armed Services Committee today. “There will be something that closely mirrors the Air Force…

Billions In F-35 Upgrades Debated; Canada Election Fallout

Billions In F-35 Upgrades Debated; Canada Election Fallout
Billions In F-35 Upgrades Debated; Canada Election Fallout

CAPITOL HILL: While Congress and the media focus on immediate issues with the F-35’s ejection seat, the program has begun working on a long-range modernization plan to upgrade the Joint Strike Fighter’s combat power. This modernization package, with the so-called Block 4 software upgrade at its core, is essential to the aircraft reaching its “full warfighting capability,” Maj. Gen.…

Kerry Sez US Won’t Wait Long For Russians On Syrian Chemical Weapons

Kerry Sez US Won’t Wait Long For Russians On Syrian Chemical Weapons
Kerry Sez US Won’t Wait Long For Russians On Syrian Chemical Weapons

CAPITOL HILL: At an often combative hearing about the US use of force after Syria’s killing 1,400 of its citizens with chemical weapons, Secretary of State John Kerry said America “will not wait for long” to hear details of Russia’s proposal to put the weapons under international control. “We are waiting for word on the…

Army Killed New Carbine Because It Wasn’t Twice As Reliable As Current M4

Army Killed New Carbine Because It Wasn’t Twice As Reliable As Current M4
Army Killed New Carbine Because It Wasn’t Twice As Reliable As Current M4

The Army has half a million M4 carbines, the lightweight version of the Vietnam-vintage M16. So if the service was going to invest in a replacement, it wanted a “leap ahead” that would, among other things, cut in half the number of times the weapon jammed – a criterion the Army has not made clear…

Army Kills New Carbine, Preempting Congress; Industry Groans, ‘Not Again!’

Army Kills New Carbine, Preempting Congress; Industry Groans, ‘Not Again!’
Army Kills New Carbine, Preempting Congress; Industry Groans, ‘Not Again!’

“Everybody loses, go home”: That’s what the US Army told the six gunmakers competing to build a new Individual Carbine to replace the widely used M4, itself a derivative of the venerable M16. Of course, it would have helped if the Army had told the competitors the right kind of ammo to fire (more on…

HASC Rejects Base Closure, F-35 Restrictions During NDAA Markup

HASC Rejects Base Closure, F-35 Restrictions During NDAA Markup
HASC Rejects Base Closure, F-35 Restrictions During NDAA Markup

[updated with final results] CAPITOL HILL: Bipartisan majorities in the House Armed Services Committee have steamrollered proposals to slow down the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and to permit the Pentagon to plan for base closures, but reformers at least made a respectable run at the windmill during markup of fiscal year 2014 National Defense Authorization…

Army Plays Shell Game With Unfinished Apache Helicopters: Put The Transmission In, And Pull It Out Again

WASHINGTON: The Army’s problem with its new Apache helicopters isn’t as bad as we thought when we first wrote about it last week. It’s worse. We knew that Northstar Aerospace, the subcontractor making the transmissions for lead contractor Boeing, had fallen behind on building that crucial component. We knew at least seven of the latest…

BRAC Is Back & Sequester’s Here To Stay: Understanding Hagel & HASC

WASHINGTON: Congress seems increasingly resigned to sequestration cuts and base closures, ideas which once met fierce rejection on Capitol Hill. That’s the counterintuitive takeaway from Chuck Hagel’s first hearing as Defense Secretary on the 2014 budget request, one largely overtaken by events. The weary notes that legislators struck on the budget probably had something to…

DepSecDef Carter Warns Of Training Shortfalls If Sequester Happens; HASC Hearing Marked By Shouting, Silliness

CAPITOL HILL: Congress and the Obama administration should thank their lucky stars that hardly anyone watched this morning’s House Armed Services Committee hearing about sequestration. Everyone in the political arena will try to paint this one as the other’s fault. The GOP will blame the Democrats. The White House will blame the GOP. The GOP…