Army Turns To Lockheed For Alternative Laser

Army Turns To Lockheed For Alternative Laser
Army Turns To Lockheed For Alternative Laser

HUNTSVILLE, ALA.: The Army is entering a new Cooperative Research & Development Agreement (CRADA) for a laser weapon with defense titan Lockheed Martin, the head of Space & Missile Defense Command said today. The service’s ultimate goal is lasers light, compact, and capable enough to protect advancing troops. The Lockheed agreement, not yet formally announced, will lead…

Pit LRASM Against Tomahawk For Anti-Ship Missile: VADM Aucoin

Pit LRASM Against Tomahawk For Anti-Ship Missile: VADM Aucoin
Pit LRASM Against Tomahawk For Anti-Ship Missile: VADM Aucoin

WASHINGTON: For all the US Navy’s worldwide might, it’s painfully short on ship-killing firepower. The Pacific fleet in particular risks being “out-sticked” by longer-ranged Chinese missiles. Today, the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations outlined a plan to fill that gap. The two competing options: an update of the old, reliable Tomahawk or the new Long-Range…

Gen. Milley To SASC: World Getting Worse, Army Getting Smaller

Gen. Milley To SASC: World Getting Worse, Army Getting Smaller
Gen. Milley To SASC: World Getting Worse, Army Getting Smaller

UPDATED: Russia is No. 1 threat, Milley tells Senate; give “defensive” arms to Ukraine CAPITOL HILL: The world has changed, and not for the better. That’s the message Gen. Mark Milley brings to the Senate this morning. The current Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Raymond Odierno, has often said the Army cannot execute the national…

CEOs Question DoD’s New IRAD Rule

CEOs Question DoD’s New IRAD Rule
CEOs Question DoD’s New IRAD Rule

WASHINGTON: Two major defense industry players have a suggestion for Frank Kendall, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, whose Better Buying Power 3.0 plan includes a new requirement that companies get the Pentagon’s blessing for internal research and development (IRAD) spending. Back off. “I’m not sure there’s a lot of upside to a lot of DoD oversight of where…

V-280 Valor: Bell Starts Building Joint Multi-Role Prototype

V-280 Valor: Bell Starts Building Joint Multi-Role Prototype
V-280 Valor: Bell Starts Building Joint Multi-Role Prototype

Somebody’s finally doing something tangible about the future of Army aviation. Bell Helicopter subcontractor Spirit AeroSystems of Wichita, Kan., has started assembling the composite fuselage for the first prototype V-280 Valor, Bell’s new military tiltrotor. The Valor is sleeker, smaller, and, by design, more Army-friendly than the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey, which was built to fit…

Missile Defense Strategy ‘Not Sustainable,’ Salvation Lies In R&D

Missile Defense Strategy ‘Not Sustainable,’ Salvation Lies In R&D
Missile Defense Strategy ‘Not Sustainable,’ Salvation Lies In R&D

CAPITOL HILL: America’s missile defense strategy is “not sustainable,” the deputy director of the Missile Defense Agency said today. We can’t keep buying multi-million-dollar interceptors to shoot down adversaries’ ever-growing arsenals of much cheaper offensive missiles, said Brig. Gen. Kenneth Todorov. We have to find a better way, Todorov said: lasers, jammers, something. That means…

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…

Big Primes Don’t Cry: Wes Bush Defends Defense Contractors

Big Primes Don’t Cry: Wes Bush Defends Defense Contractors
Big Primes Don’t Cry: Wes Bush Defends Defense Contractors

WASHINGTON: With the Pentagon opening an outreach office in Silicon Valley, traditional defense firms may be feeling left behind. But the much-maligned prime contractors play a vital role in innovation, said Northrop Grumman CEO Wes Bush this morning. In fact, he argued, the Defense Department often needs the traditional firms to act as a “translator,”…

Secretary Of Drones: Mabus Creates DASN For Unmanned

Secretary Of Drones: Mabus Creates DASN For Unmanned
Secretary Of Drones: Mabus Creates DASN For Unmanned

UPDATED: Sen. McCain & Rep. Forbes Comment NATIONAL HARBOR, MD: Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced today that he’s reorganizing his department to increase emphasis on unmanned systems, from aerial drones to robotic mini-subs — a move which met with rapid approbation from Congress. “I’m going to appoint a new Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Unmanned…

Are Missile Defense Lasers On The Verge Of Reality?

Are Missile Defense Lasers On The Verge Of Reality?
Are Missile Defense Lasers On The Verge Of Reality?

CRYSTAL CITY: In three years the US military could have a prototype laser weapon blasting out 300 kilowatts of energy, a jump that could ignite a revolution in missile defense, a Lockheed Martin engineer told me today, A 300-kw laser could kill cruise missiles. For comparison, that’s 10 times the power output of the Laser Weapons System…

Air Force Chief Welsh Signals Shift To Modernization, AKA Weapons

Air Force Chief Welsh Signals Shift To Modernization, AKA Weapons
Air Force Chief Welsh Signals Shift To Modernization, AKA Weapons

ORLANDO: More than half-way into his tenure as Air Force Chief of staff, Gen. Mark Welsh has shifted focus from the service’s airmen to its weapons, declaring today that “we must modernize the Air Force. This isn’t optional. We must do it. And It will be painful because we will have to make hard choices.” Welsh’s speech…

Army Looks To Build Two Forms of Medium Future Vertical Lift

Army Looks To Build Two Forms of Medium Future Vertical Lift
Army Looks To Build Two Forms of Medium Future Vertical Lift

ARLINGTON: And then there were five. There were already going to be four different aircraft in the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) family, from light to medium to heavy to “ultra.” Now it’s almost certain that the medium FVL will be split into two separate versions: a smaller attack/reconnaissance aircraft and a larger troop-carrying assault craft.…

SOCOM Builds Iron Man, Piece By Piece

SOCOM Builds Iron Man, Piece By Piece
SOCOM Builds Iron Man, Piece By Piece

WASHINGTON: Despite the hype, the US Special Operations Command won’t issue Iron Man-style armor to its troops any time soon. But that’s not the standard by which to assess the success or failure of SOCOM’s much vaunted Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit initiative, the command’s chief weapons buyer says. The value of TALOS lies at least…

Kendall Unveils Sixth Gen Fighter Project For 2016

Kendall Unveils Sixth Gen Fighter Project For 2016
Kendall Unveils Sixth Gen Fighter Project For 2016

CAPITOL HILL: The United States will begin serious development of prototypes for so-called sixth generation fighters — successors to the F-35 and F-22 — for the Navy and the Air Force in the 2016 budget, says the head of Pentagon acquisition, Frank Kendall. The Aviation Innovation Initiative is a new effort, not an agglomeration of existing DARPA…