Overall, the defense budget for the next year is set at AU$52.588 billion, the first time funding has exceeded AU$50 billion.
By Max Blenkin“Lockheed Martin will deliver and transfer to Australia the same level of technology and development and advanced programs and systems that we have in our factories in United States,” Pat Sunderlin, VP of operations for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, said.
By Colin ClarkOn lawmaker said the drone program was a “rare defense project that was going to deliver new combat capability in just a few years and is shelved after a decade worth of planning and investment.”
By Colin ClarkThe B-21 program will not undertake traditional “block upgrades” to beef up future performance, says Air Force Global Strike Command head Gen. Timothy Ray. Instead, it will incrementally add new capabilities as they become available.
By Theresa HitchensWASHINGTON: With its latest contract to Lockheed Martin, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has taken another step in its effort to rapidly develop a capability to drop bombs and launch cruise missiles to augment the shrinking fleet of long-range bombers. The Other Transaction Authority (OTA) contract, announced yesterday and worth $25 million over 18…
By Theresa HitchensThe U.S. has 156 bombers today. But the Air Force is committed to boasting 386 squadrons, up 75 from its total today. “Certainly,” Gen. Timothy Ray said, “that means good growth for the bombers.”
By Colin ClarkThe US could develop more than a dozen different land-based weapons for $7 to $12 billion, thinktank CSBA estimates.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.But while the skies are quiet today, US Pacific Air Forces are preparing for possible conflict: fielding new weapons like the F-35 stealth fighter and the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM), adding more space-operations planners to theater staffs, and reemphasizing that old-fashioned initiative so junior commanders can act when an enemy cuts off their communications with higher headquarters.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.“Long-range precision fires… would provide us the capability (to) either, for example, support the Air Force by suppressing enemy air defenses at hundreds upon hundreds of miles or support the Navy by engaging enemy surface ships at great distances as well,” said Army Secretary Mark Esper. But those examples are two distinctly different missions, each most relevant to a different theater of war.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.WASHINGTON: In one of the largest coordinated international air operations in years, over 100 American, British and French guided missiles slammed into three Syrian chemical weapons facilities early Saturday morning, launched from an armada of aircraft, submarines, and ships offshore. The Pentagon was careful Saturday to say that the assault didn’t seek to topple the…
By Paul McLeary[Updated with Bryan Clark analysis] Lockheed Martin doesn’t like to say it, but their best salesman isn’t getting a bonus this year. That’s because his name is Vladimir Putin. An increasingly aggressive and well-armed Russia is clearly driving its neighbors to build up their own arsenals, and in highly specific ways. Thus the international success of…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.