Boeing’s famous Phantom Works threw the kitchen sink at the problem: This is an aircraft with a helicopter-style main rotor, a tail rotor, a pusher propeller, and a wing-like “stabilator.”
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.US and UK soldiers tried out the Israeli-made Safe Shoot in field exercise at Fort Benning. The results were… mixed.
By Arie EgoziResearch and development spending on hypersonics will nearly double in ‘21, and it will triple for lasers, as the service rushes to deploy combat-ready prototypes.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.After decades of R&D, the race to replace the UH-60 helicopter is entering its last few years.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.Lockheed Martin is designing what it calls a new Hypersonic Strike Weapon-Air Breathing (which goes by the awful acronym HSW-ab) for DARPA. John Varley, Lockheed’s VP for hypersonic weapons, wouldn’t provide details due to the program’s high level of classification.
By Theresa HitchensAVX/L3, Bell, Boeing, Karem, and Sikorsky have submitted their designs for the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft. None of them is a conventional helicopter.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.The Army isn’t just replacing old helicopters. It’s building a networked “ecosystem” of mutually supporting manned and unmanned weapons that can drive a flying wedge into Russian and Chinese air defenses.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.Four bases around the country will pioneer military use of the new high-speed communications network technology.
By Paul McLearyThe Army wants $985 million for modernization, from Apache gunships and 8×8 Strykers to safety improvements at ammunition plants. We have the list.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.The SB>1 Defiant compound helicopter has only 11 hours of flight testing, versus over 160 for Bell’s V-280 Valor. But Sikorsky and Boeing say they have thousands of hours of other testing data to help the Army choose.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.“The JROC tended to be a receiver of requirements from services, not a generator of requirements for the services to meet,” Gen. Hyten said. “That’s not what was intended by Congress.”
By Colin ClarkSDA says it’s still a transition partner for Blackjack, despite no specific funding line in its 2021 budget.
By Theresa Hitchens
A rara avis. That is what you are reading. This opinion piece by three active duty Air Force officers deals with perhaps the service’s most important program start since the Cold War, the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS), which most industry and military experts believe will be the key to All Domain Operations. The Air…
By Paul Birch, Ray Reeves and Brad DeWees