WASHINGTON: If you’ve ever daydreamed of designing your own tank — okay, “infantry fighting vehicle” — then DARPA wants to give you your shot. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has a long history of long shots, including such high-risk, high-reward projects as the first stealth aircraft and the earliest version of what became the… Keep reading →

PENTAGON CITY: Hungry for answers on how to make more effective use of the tens of thousands of hours of video gathered by Predators, Global Hawks and other military eyes in the sky, Air Force officials recently visited NASCAR, the car racing people, to learn better and faster ways of mining video data. “We have… Keep reading →

The Navy’s jet-powered P-8 Poseidon patrol plane boasts plenty of advances over the P-3 Orion turboprops it will replace, but for the sensor operators the favorite feature will be very basic: They won’t throw up as much. The P-3’s notoriously rough ride at low altitudes and the gunpowder-like stench from the launch tube shooting sonar… Keep reading →

Even if Congress somehow averts sequestration, the defense industry is headed for layoffs and, at best, anemic growth, and the much-vaunted surge in foreign military sales won’t turn that around. If the automatic cuts known as sequestration do take effect as currently scheduled in January, the impact would be “a devastating blow.” That’s the bleak… Keep reading →

The bomb exploded like a dusty thunderclap directly underneath the front left tire of the U.S. Army MaxxPro truck, sending the tall, roughly 20-ton vehicle lurching at least 10 feet forward and scattering chunks of the outer hull like amputated body parts. It was March 19, 2011, in the Pakhab-e-Shana in eastern Afghanistan’s breadbasket Logar… Keep reading →

Paris and Berlin are in a bind as British-based BAE and Franco-German giant EADs, the parent company of Airbus, seek approval to merge into the world’s largest aerospace company. If the French and German governments accept the companies’ current merger terms, their ability to influence the new tri-national behemoth will be sharply diminished and they… Keep reading →

PENTAGON: After a year of pleading, cajoling, wheedling, warning and whining, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has clearly reached the end of his rope when it comes to sequestration and Congress. Panetta and other senior defense officials have repeatedly argued the country must avoid sequestration because any deals would mean instability over time and thus pose… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The Navy is “on a roll” when it comes to shipbuilding, but the existing fleet remains under stress, the Chief of Naval Operations said today. “We are on a roll on shipbuilding, [with] ships delivered on or ahead of schedule, on or below budget,” Adm. Jonathan Greenert said at a luncheon hosted by the… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: As the wars draw down and budgets shrink, the massive Army Materiel Command — 70,000 military and civilian personnel at arsenals, depots, and other facilities in all 50 states — is shifting gears and taking on new missions. Some longstanding efforts are winding down, explained Lt. Gen. Patricia McQuistion, AMC’s new deputy commander, at… Keep reading →

China unveils a new “stealth” jet, but we don’t know how stealthy it is or when it might fly actual missions. China unveils a new aircraft carrier. Its leaders boast about extending China’s reach, but the carrier doesn’t have any planes and we aren’t sure when they might build them. Monitoring a rapidly developing China,… Keep reading →