Army aviation’s “top modernization priority program” – at least that’s what they call it – took another baby step forward this week. The service awarded preliminary design review contracts to the two competitors vying to build a better engine to power the service’s vast fleet of Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk and Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopters.… Keep reading →

LONDON: Sen. John McCain would be howling if 49 percent of Pentagon contracts were not competed — especially if that had been true for more than nine years. How would McCain and his colleagues react if a company awarded a sole source deal charged the government $34,000 for a charitable donation or for “staff welfare?” One can only… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Army budgeteers are laboring mightily to fund four National Guard attack helicopter battalions in their 2018 request, if Congress doesn’t add the money for 2017, the service’s vice-chief said today. The Army also has “a resourcing strategy” to restore an 11th Combat Aviation Brigade — a mix of attack and utility helicopters — to… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The US military successfully targeted and destroyed a moving truck from a drone using the missile designed to replace the venerable Hellfire. The Joint Air To Ground Missile (JAGM) was fired May 25 at a truck traveling at 20 mph from a Grey Eagle drone at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. The truck was hit and destroyed. Col. James… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Mac Thornberry, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, wants to boost funding for readiness and modernization and he’s using a budgeting gimmick in the defense policy bill to do it that is prompting much head shaking. (A similar gimmick led to a short-lived presidential veto last year). Colin’s bet is that, should the Senate… Keep reading →

[UPDATED with details on $90 million plus-up from House defense bill, total contract values] Alarmed by deadly battles in Ukraine, the Army wants to place miniaturized missile defense systems on its armored vehicles to protect them from anti-tank weapons. To reach this high-tech holy grail, which has  painfully evaded the service in the past, the Army is taking a… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: It’s a bit hard to believe, but the House Armed Services Air and Land Forces subcommittee wants the Pentagon to consider the possibility of restarting the F-22 production line. “In light of growing threats to U.S. air superiority as a result of adversaries closing the technology gap and increasing demand from allies and partners… Keep reading →

Classic science fiction imagined evil master computers remote-controlling their mindless robot minions. It imagined good-guy droids that were basically humans in tin suits. But as the actual science of autonomy evolves, reality is looking a lot weirder. The user interface may be in an ordinary Android tablet, but the artificial intelligence itself may reside in… Keep reading →

UPDATED with comment from Army Commission & National Guard Association of the US WASHINGTON: The Army $7.5 billion wishlist for Congress, obtained by Breaking Defense, of needs that didn’t fit in its 2017 budget includes $1.64 billion for new weapons and $1.2 billion to implement the recommendations of the National Commission on the Future of the Army to retain four National… Keep reading →