Boeing and Lockheed are locked in an enduring struggle over the sale of advanced fighters to the U.S. Navy and to other countries. The cost increases and schedule delays that have beset the Joint Strike Fighter program offered Boeing an appealing opening and they have leapt in. The F-18, they argue is a combat-proven aircraft… Keep reading →

Washington: The Army uses Native American tribe names as nicknames for its helicopters – Black Hawk, Kiowa Warrior and Lakota, for instance — but Boeing Co. officials at the Association of the United States Army’s annual convention in Washington are joshing that the service may want to start calling the company’s AH-64D Apache attack helicopter… Keep reading →

Washington: Another memorandum signed by two governments. Yawn. Well, usually. But when the Japanese government confirmed that it would now allow its air forces to refuel American warplanes as part of an agreement signed between the two countries last October it took on an entirely new meaning. The year-old pact between the Air Force and… Keep reading →

The Marine Corps is taking the use of unmanned air systems to the next level, deploying pilotless cargo helicopters to Afghanistan to test their ability to supply troops in the field without trucks facing the risk of deadly IEDs. The six-month demonstration of the feasibility of a cargo UAS in a combat environment will involve… Keep reading →

Philadelphia: The CH-47 Chinook helicopter has been flying U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines into some of the world’s most dangerous places for over 50 years. Now, a new program office will ensure that the venerable aircraft will still be able to fly those missions for another 50 years, the Army Colonel in charge of… Keep reading →

PHILADELPHIA: As the budget outlook for the services seems to get bleaker with each passing day, one Army general says he expects to do pretty well come February. Maj. Gen Tim Crosby, head of the Army’s program executive office for aviation, said his office’s funding request for the upcoming Fiscal Year 2013 budget should remain… Keep reading →

Washington: The defense industry has clearly decided looming budget cuts pose such a grave threat to its future that it must abandon its usual quiet, behind-the-scenes efforts to influence the American public and go national, using social media as well as its usual combination of education and money. Today, the Aerospace Industries Association unveiled its… Keep reading →

On Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. military possessed just handful of robot aircraft. Today, the Air Force alone operates more than 50 drone “orbits,” each composed of four Predator or Reaper aircraft plus their ground-based control systems and human operators. Smaller Navy, Marine and Army drones number in the thousands. Since they do not need… Keep reading →

Washington: Less than a week after the Army awarded multimillion development deals for its Ground Combat Vehicle, an industry protest has brought the program to a grinding halt. The protest was filed with the Government Accountability Office today by the SAIC-Boeing team, which lost out on the large Army contract. Last Friday, the Army awarded… Keep reading →

UPDATED Cherry Point, NC: The Marine Corps is pushing some of its fighter aircraft to the breaking point, as the service waits for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Marine Corps fighter squadrons in Afghanistan have racked up thousands of flight hours on their legacy F/A-18 Hornets, scraping the ceiling of the 9,000 to 10,000-hour cap… Keep reading →