AUSA: Lasers versus drones: It’s the cool versus awesome, ninjas versus pirates matchup of future warfare. The Army’s already experimented with a 10-kilowatt laser on a heavy truck, Boeing’s High Energy Laser – Mobile Demonstrator (HEL-MD), which could shoot down mortar rounds in flight. Now, while Lockheed scales up the truck-mounted laser to a whopping… Keep reading →

AUSA: As a rule of thumb, the aerodynamics of rotor blades limit helicopters to top cruising speeds well under 200 mph, but Sikorsky and Boeing are building an aircraft they promise will thumb its nose at that rule. It’s a compound helicopter – two coaxial rotors and a pusher propeller – that they promise will… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: As the Army grapples with new concepts such as Multi-Domain Battle, Congress continues to avoid its constitutional responsibilities to pass spending bills, and the world grows ever more complex, the leaders of the Army gather here for the annual tribal event known as the Association of the US Army’s annual conference. Retired Gen. Carter… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Money is the sincerest form of flattery. When Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work visited the Association of the US Army conference here today, he not only delivered a ringing endorsement of the Army’s new Multi-Domain Battle concept: He also offered to help fund it. Army leaders lament their modernization budget is $36 to… Keep reading →

Oshkosh has just started delivering Joint Light Tactical Vehicles to replace the military’s iconic and under-armored Humvee, but it’s already got its sights — literally — on the next big thing. The Army is looking for a Light Reconnaissance Vehicle to scout ahead of its infantry units, and after exploring a purpose-built vehicle, it decided… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Cut the red wire? Cut the blue wire? That classic action movie dilemma isn’t even on the table for bomb squads using current robots, which can drag the bomb away from people or blast it with a shotgun. That’s what Harris has developed its T7 Explosive Ordnance Disposal robot, which has fingers — sort of. The… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: It looks like a tank, drives on tracks like a tank, fires 120 mm shells at several times the speed of sound like a tank — but don’t call it a tank. The General Dynamics “Griffin” is a kind of concept car on steroids, a demonstration of existing technologies that could be quickly fit… Keep reading →

AUSA: I’m not a pilot, but today I played a copilot in a flight simulator Bell Helicopter brought to the Association of the United States Army annual convention to show what its next tiltrotor, the V-280 Valor, will be able to do. As my pilot in the simulator, former Army aviator and test pilot Steve Kihara,… Keep reading →

Small is beautiful, even at the largest defense show of the year. Polaris Defense makes off-road vehicles — light and rugged enough to drop from airplanes — in service with US Special Operations Command and various allied nations. The “Big Army” is considering the Polaris DAGOR, among other competitors, to carry airborne troops and other… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Congress hasn’t passed a budget for 2017, but we’re already hearing rumblings of the 2018 budget war coming from inside the Pentagon. The Army needs to radically overhaul its equipment, training, and even its culture for chaotic future conflicts against high-end adversaries like Russia and China, the largest service’s top leaders said today. But… Keep reading →