The AOEW is designed to work independently or in conjunction with shipboard systems to protect vessels from incoming missiles.
By Justin KatzTop defense insights from 2024
A curated look at standout opinions and analysis covering topics like uncrewed systems, NATO partnerships, US-Saudi defense dynamics, and evolving warfare strategies, spotlighting key issues shaping the global defense landscape.
WASHINGTON: The F-35 program began taking a major step the last two weeks toward removing an enormous albatross from around its neck by replacing the much-maligned ALIS logistics system with its sleeker, faster and younger replacement, ODIN. The move to install ODIN on two of 14 deployments brings the logistics and planning system to units in…
By Colin Clark
The Navy’s Osprey differs from the Marine Corps and Air Force versions, boasting an enhanced fuel capacity, which required wing modifications to deal with the greater weight.
By Robbin Laird
The Navy will replace all 115 of its aged TH-57 Sea Ranger training helicopters with Leonardo’s AW119 helicopter.
By Barry Rosenberg
An IDF team has been taking test flights aboard Lockheed Martin’s new CH-53K in Maryland, but Boeing’s CH-47 Chinook is in the running too — and both programs could use a boost against their American critics.
By Arie Egozi
“We’re not going to pretend it’s easy,” Rear Adm. Keith Blount, assistant chief of the Naval Staff told reporters. “But this isn’t unfathomably difficult for us. We are enjoying going back into the big time, and this is one of those big steps on that ladder. It’s hugely exciting and should be reassuring to those back home and to those on this side of the Atlantic.”
By Paul McLeary
Days after the Navy’s T-45 Goshawk trainers returned to flight under strict safety restrictions because of problems with their air supply, the service felt compelled to make them even stricter. An aircrew’s report of “minor headaches” prompted the tighter limits, a Navy spokesperson told Breaking Defense. Only one flight out of 92 over 48 hours reported such…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Autonomy changes everything about combat engineering
Sending robotic vehicles into the breach saves lives by removing humans from one of the most dangerous places on the battlefield.
NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER: So easy, a journalist can do it. That could be the slogan for the Navy’s new Magic Carpet software, which simplifies the most stressful task in aviation: landing on deck of an aircraft carrier. I’d never pretend I could fly a real plane. But in a simulator, with Navy engineer Buddy…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
It’s one small part for an aircraft engine, one giant leap for 3D printing. The Navy has announced a Marine MV-22 made the sea services’ first successful flight with a “flight critical” component built by additive manufacturing. Specifically, in the test at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, the Osprey’s engine nacelle contained a 3D printed titanium link, small…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER, MD: Pax River is a robot zoo today, showcasing unmanned vehicles from micro-mini-submarines — so small you can throw one like a football — to what appears to be a solar-powered canoe. More than 40 systems here from 30 projects and six nations were gathered by the US Office of…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
PATUXENT RIVER NAVAL AIR STATION: The future of Navy long-range reconnaissance, the recently arrived MQ-4C Triton drone, sprawls across its hangar here, with a wingspan 13 feet wider than a Boeing 737 but a body that’s 80 percent lighter. Designed for 24-hour-plus patrols at 50,000 feet, Triton still can’t do the job by itself, say both the program manager and…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
WASHINGTON: The F-35Bs have not left Patuxent River Naval Air Station to make their way across the Atlantic Ocean. After an all–hands meeting this morning to discuss the issue of securing a waiver or permission to fly from NAVAIR, Naval Air Systems Command — who must decide if the Marine Corps planes are airworthy —…
By Colin Clark
The F-35C, the Navy version of the Joint Strike Fighter and the plane most in danger of being cut or reduced by its service, has passed the first round of critical tests of its tail hook, the part of the plane that makes traditional carrier landings possible. “All flight test objectives were met,” Joe DellaVedova,…
By Colin Clark
PATUXENT RIVER NAVAL AIR STATION: “My job is to preserve options and that’s what I do,” said Capt. Francis Morley, Navy program manager for the F-18 fighter family. Will the Navy press ahead to buy more F-18s in the face of what seems pretty determined opposition from the Office of Secretary of Defense, eager to…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
