Carlo Munoz
Stories by Carlo Munoz
ABOARD THE USS WASP: For the first time, Marine and Navy planners have melded a carrier strike group into the Marine Corps’ premiere amphibious operations wargame known as Bold Alligator. This appears to bridge what had appeared to be a growing divide between a Marine Corps eager to build more amphibious ships and a Navy…
By Carlo Munoz
WASHINGTON: Despite the Pentagon’s decision to nix the Air Force’s Global Hawk unmanned aircraft from the arsenal in fiscal 2013, officials from prime contractor Northrop Grumman are staging an 11th-hour bid to get some of those planes back into the fleet. Company officials are working a plan to convince the department to proceed with planned…
By Carlo Munoz
WASHINGTON: The Navy’s biggest amphibious exercise in a decade, Bold Alligator, is not specifically designed to counter Iranian threats in the Persian Gulf. But it comes awfully close, according to two senior service officials. The joint Navy and Marine Corps exercise is geared toward honing the services’ amphibious warfare capabilities. Training operations began this week…
By Carlo Munoz
WASHINGTON: The Pentagon and White House are trying to have it both ways in the new national security strategy unveiled last week, and the department is looking to the National Guard and Reserve to help make that happen. The Pentagon nixed several missions from the U.S. military’s portfolio as part of the new strategy. The…
By Carlo Munoz
PENTAGON: While the Army is already poised to drop to its lowest total force since 9/11, the service also is mulling a slew of organizational changes that could shrink the force even more, the Army’s top uniformed officer said today. The Army is studying what the “optimal size” of the service’s brigade combat teams should…
By Carlo Munoz
WASHINGTON: The Pentagon is again looking to its submarine fleet to fill a long-standing desire for a Prompt Global Strike weapon. The Navy will finance work on an “undersea conventional prompt global strike option” as part of its share of DoD’s $525 billion budget request for Fiscal 2013, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said during today’s…
By Carlo Munoz
WASHINGTON: Defense firms working on the Humvee upgrade effort are setting their sights on the Marines after Pentagon officials killed the Army-led program, industry sources say. Marine Corps officials who observed testing on some early industry designs for the Modernized Expanded Capability Vehicle — the official moniker of the Humvee recapitalization program — were more…
By Carlo Munoz
New director of Joint Staff is… drumroll please… Army Lt. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti. He was in Afghanistan as ISAF Joint Commander colinclarkaol
By Carlo Munoz
UPDATED WASHINGTON: The Global Hawk is dead. Long live the Global Hawk. Pentagon and service leaders are rumored to be considering reducing or canceling the current version of the venerable intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance drone. The Block 30 Global Hawk variant will be replaced with the Cold War-era U-2 spy planes. The decision to cut…
By Carlo Munoz
WASHINGTON: Lighter, faster and more lethal. That’s where he U.S. military is headed as a result of looming budget cuts slated to begin in fiscal 2013. And that’s where the Army wants to take their fleet of light combat vehicles, to help ease that budget blow. But to get there, service leaders plan to radically…
By Carlo Munoz
UPDATED WASHINGTON: The Army will cancel a multimillion dollar effort to upgrade its Humvee fleet and funnel those funds into the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, according to sources with knowledge of the program. Pentagon acquisition officials spearheaded Army’s decision to terminate the Modernized Expanded Capability Vehicle program — the official moniker of the Humvee recapitalization…
By Carlo Munoz
WASHINGTON: And then there were two. Denmark’s top defense leaders chose the MH-60 Seahawk and Augusta Westland’s AW159 Wildcat to continue on in the country’s ongoing combat helicopter competition, according to a statement from the country’s Defence Command. Either the Seahawk or Wildcat will replace the Danish navy’s fleet of British-built Lynx helos “and will…
By Carlo Munoz
WASHINGTON: The Pentagon is pushing hard to get weapons technologies into the hands of U.S. allies and a new advisory panel will help the department do just that. The new Technology Security and Foreign Disclosure Office created by Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter will help “ensure DoD-wide planning for building partner capacity [by] taking into…
By Carlo Munoz
WASHINGTON: As the Marine Corps move ahead with plans to weaponize its Shadow aerial drones, one defense firm is doing all it can to ensure they’ll be in that mix. Weapons maker MBDA will begin a new round of live flight tests of its Saber guided bomb later this year, Doug Denneny, the company’s vice…
By Carlo Munoz
ABOARD THE USS WASP: For the first time, Marine and Navy planners have melded a carrier strike group into the Marine Corps’ premiere amphibious operations wargame known as Bold Alligator. This appears to bridge what had appeared to be a growing divide between a Marine Corps eager to build more amphibious ships and a Navy…
By Carlo MunozWASHINGTON: Despite the Pentagon’s decision to nix the Air Force’s Global Hawk unmanned aircraft from the arsenal in fiscal 2013, officials from prime contractor Northrop Grumman are staging an 11th-hour bid to get some of those planes back into the fleet. Company officials are working a plan to convince the department to proceed with planned…
By Carlo MunozWASHINGTON: The Navy’s biggest amphibious exercise in a decade, Bold Alligator, is not specifically designed to counter Iranian threats in the Persian Gulf. But it comes awfully close, according to two senior service officials. The joint Navy and Marine Corps exercise is geared toward honing the services’ amphibious warfare capabilities. Training operations began this week…
By Carlo MunozWASHINGTON: The Pentagon and White House are trying to have it both ways in the new national security strategy unveiled last week, and the department is looking to the National Guard and Reserve to help make that happen. The Pentagon nixed several missions from the U.S. military’s portfolio as part of the new strategy. The…
By Carlo MunozPENTAGON: While the Army is already poised to drop to its lowest total force since 9/11, the service also is mulling a slew of organizational changes that could shrink the force even more, the Army’s top uniformed officer said today. The Army is studying what the “optimal size” of the service’s brigade combat teams should…
By Carlo MunozWASHINGTON: The Pentagon is again looking to its submarine fleet to fill a long-standing desire for a Prompt Global Strike weapon. The Navy will finance work on an “undersea conventional prompt global strike option” as part of its share of DoD’s $525 billion budget request for Fiscal 2013, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said during today’s…
By Carlo MunozWASHINGTON: Defense firms working on the Humvee upgrade effort are setting their sights on the Marines after Pentagon officials killed the Army-led program, industry sources say. Marine Corps officials who observed testing on some early industry designs for the Modernized Expanded Capability Vehicle — the official moniker of the Humvee recapitalization program — were more…
By Carlo MunozNew director of Joint Staff is… drumroll please… Army Lt. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti. He was in Afghanistan as ISAF Joint Commander colinclarkaol
By Carlo MunozUPDATED WASHINGTON: The Global Hawk is dead. Long live the Global Hawk. Pentagon and service leaders are rumored to be considering reducing or canceling the current version of the venerable intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance drone. The Block 30 Global Hawk variant will be replaced with the Cold War-era U-2 spy planes. The decision to cut…
By Carlo MunozWASHINGTON: Lighter, faster and more lethal. That’s where he U.S. military is headed as a result of looming budget cuts slated to begin in fiscal 2013. And that’s where the Army wants to take their fleet of light combat vehicles, to help ease that budget blow. But to get there, service leaders plan to radically…
By Carlo MunozUPDATED WASHINGTON: The Army will cancel a multimillion dollar effort to upgrade its Humvee fleet and funnel those funds into the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, according to sources with knowledge of the program. Pentagon acquisition officials spearheaded Army’s decision to terminate the Modernized Expanded Capability Vehicle program — the official moniker of the Humvee recapitalization…
By Carlo MunozWASHINGTON: And then there were two. Denmark’s top defense leaders chose the MH-60 Seahawk and Augusta Westland’s AW159 Wildcat to continue on in the country’s ongoing combat helicopter competition, according to a statement from the country’s Defence Command. Either the Seahawk or Wildcat will replace the Danish navy’s fleet of British-built Lynx helos “and will…
By Carlo MunozWASHINGTON: The Pentagon is pushing hard to get weapons technologies into the hands of U.S. allies and a new advisory panel will help the department do just that. The new Technology Security and Foreign Disclosure Office created by Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter will help “ensure DoD-wide planning for building partner capacity [by] taking into…
By Carlo MunozWASHINGTON: As the Marine Corps move ahead with plans to weaponize its Shadow aerial drones, one defense firm is doing all it can to ensure they’ll be in that mix. Weapons maker MBDA will begin a new round of live flight tests of its Saber guided bomb later this year, Doug Denneny, the company’s vice…
By Carlo Munoz
