Navy Teaches Robot Top Gun, X-47, To Fly From Aircraft Carriers
Posted on
NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER: Landing a jet plane on an aircraft carrier is one of the hardest and most dangerous things a human being can do, with pilots’ stress levels spiking higher than in combat. Now the Navy is trying to teach a robot how to do it: The X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System,… Keep reading →
Navy Wins Big As Senate Approps Adds $4.2B To Keep Nine Ships, Add Destroyer, Fund Attack Sub
Posted on
CAPITOL HILL: Those nine warships the Navy planned to retire in the face of the budget crunch? Fuggedaboutit. They’re back in, if the Senate Appropriations Committee has anything to say about it. The Army wants to keep working on tanks? Cool. We got their back. Helicopters flew the guys who killed Osama bin Laden and… Keep reading →
How Sequestration Slams Small Business
Posted on
George Hill is president of Advex Corporation, a company based in Hampton, Virginia and a member of the Aircraft Carrier Industrial Base Coalition (ACIBC). Unless Congress acts to change the existing law, sequestration will automatically cut $1.2 trillion from the President’s budget over the next decade-including $492 billion from military spending. These cuts threaten one… Keep reading →
Navy May Buy More F-35s, Not Fewer, Under F/A-XX Initiative
Posted on
PENTAGON: The Navy’s F/A-XX initiative has been depicted as an ultra-advanced “sixth generation” aircraft that the Navy would prefer to buy instead of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. But Breaking Defense interviews with Navy and industry sources strongly suggest that the service has little appetite for another expensive development program and that the most… Keep reading →
CNO Article Raises Doubts About Joint Strike Fighter
Posted on
[This piece was originally published under the title “CNO Ready To Cut Back On F-35 Joint Strike Fighter,” which was factually incorrect; see our note below.] Chief of Naval Operations Jonathan Greenert’s recent article in Proceedings announces in public what many have already known in private: The U.S. Navy is not wholly committed to the… Keep reading →
Sequester Fears Paralyze Would-Be Wave Of Defense Acquisitions
Posted on
On the eve of the international Farnborough Airshow, a prominent aerospace and defense analyst says there is a wave of investment ready to pour into the defense sector – but investors are “paralyzed” by the unresolved threat of sequestration. “A lot of people in the industry and a lot of investment capital outside the industry… Keep reading →
Russians, Indians Join Largest RIMPAC In Years; Chinese Welcome Too, Says CNO
Posted on
PENTAGON: With a new military strategy emphasizing Asia and alliance-building, the U.S. Pacific Fleet today kicked off its largest international exercise in years, known as “Rim of the Pacific” (RIMPAC). Some 42 ships are representing 22 countries, including India, which the US has been wooing as a counterweight to China, and Russia, once the presumed… Keep reading →
Navy Names Two New Carrier Strike Group Commanders
Posted on
Navy announces new commanders for Carrier Strike Groups 1 and 11 out of San Diego, RADMs Steindl and White – and more: http://1.usa.gov/MntN0E SydneyFreedberg
X-47B Carrier Drone Passes Air Worthiness Tests; Carrier Takeoffs, Landings Next Year
Posted on
WASHINGTON: The unmanned aircraft most likely to become the first to takeoff and land on aircraft carriers is moving to the next phase of testing, moving from Edwards Air Force Base to the Navy’s main operational test site at Patuxent River, Md. The X-47B, also known as the Navy’s UCAS-D, soared higher than 15,000 feet… Keep reading →
Wicked Video Mocks — in Mandarin — US Defense Spending
Posted on
There’s very little to say about this video, beyond the fact that is funny and enjoyable. The company that produced it is, according to the email I received, a Taiwanese company called Next Media Animation. The politics of a Taiwanese media company criticizing U.S. Navy spending are delightful. What other country depends more on the… Keep reading →