PATUXENT RIVER NAVAL AIR STATION: You climb up into your new Joint Strike fighter in your flight suit, pull on the flight helmet and say, “Hey darling, It’s Squirt. Set up my screens the way I like em and let’s go get some bad guys.” OK. The latest software in Lockheed Martin’s Joint Strike Fighter… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: One lesson the Army has taken to heart from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is the value — and often the necessity — of aviation to soldiers fighting on the ground. This is one reason that, even as the Army shrinks by a reported 80,000 or more troops under President Obama’s new military… Keep reading →

PATUXENT RIVER NAVAL AIR STATION: Lockheed Martin’s Joint Strike Fighter program is on track to get back on track. The road ahead is long and bound to be bumpy, but after at least two years of almost unremittingly bad news, the program now can claim several important achievements. That seemed to be Defense Secretary Leon… Keep reading →

The Army, eager to get Federal Aviation Administration permission to fly unmanned aircraft in civilian airspace near its U.S. bases for training, has issued a new directive on the subject and will apply for an FAA Certificate of Authorization to operate drones near Fort Stewart, Georgia. “The Army’s unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) represent emerging technology… Keep reading →

The weeping and gnashing of teeth – that so descriptive phrase from the New Testament — is the end-of-days tone that grips the Congress, Defense Department and defense industry every time there is a change in strategic direction. Coffee mugs with program names on them are being considered for endangered species status. You can take… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will lift the probationary status tomorrow that the F-35B has labored under since his predecessor imposed it one year ago. This lifts a dark veil from the program, which many have critics have targeted for elimination. The Pentagon has been rife with rumors about this for two weeks but a… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: If the Army wants to get the Armed Aerial Scout into the fleet — which it wants to badly — it’s gonna have to sacrifice parts of its air portfolio to get there. Federal funding for the Army’s air directorate will likely remain static in the Pentagon’s upcoming budget proposal for fiscal 2012, Maj.… Keep reading →

The State and Defense departments scrambled to “correct misperceptions” on Capitol Hill, in foreign capitals and throughout the international space community about American intentions regarding an international space code of conduct. That’s the way a source familiar with the government’s discussions put it. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Defense Department spokesman George Little… Keep reading →

The two congressional defense policy committees may not have a clear path to avoid a punishing sequestration of defense funds — that big fat $600 billion cut triggered by the failure of the Supercommittee — but they do have a plan to get their work done early so they can do what really counts on… Keep reading →

The Navy and Marines have a network. The Army has its knowledge online. The Air Force wanted to be the cyber czar. The Joint Staff has a network. NSA has a really big network. And then there’s the Department of Homeland Security and everyone else in government. Everyone has a network. How do you make… Keep reading →