Patuxent River, Md: The Navy has increased its experimentation with its fleet of combat helicopters to see how they can work with unmanned aircraft. The Navy recently flew Lockheed Martin’s new MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter and the Northrop Grumman’s Fire Scout unmanned aircraft together in joint operations, deputy program manager Robert Kimble told reporters here… Keep reading →

Washington: The Navy will place arming its fleet of Fire Scout drones with a modified Hydra rocket, heralding a new era in unmanned combat for the service. An armed Fire Scout will dramatically cut the Navy’s kill chain, or time it takes to identify, track and eventually sink an enemy target, says Jan Van Tol,… Keep reading →

UPDATED: Washington: Northrop Grumman knows the Defense Weather Satellite System neck is stretched out beneath the Pentagon budget cutters ax. Advocates like defense consultant Loren Thompson are rushing out to defend it. The Air Force is getting ready to kill the satellite program, which is a stepchild of the late unlamented (except by Northrop) NPOESS… Keep reading →

This time it’s different. For more than a year, defense companies have taken measured steps to prepare for defense spending budget cuts. Many pruned corporate spending, sending fewer executives to foreign air shows. Some, like Lockheed Martin Corp., even offered sweeping buyouts. Others even sold off headache-causing businesses, as Northrop Grumman Corp. did by spinning… Keep reading →

Washington: The Pentagon is hoping that a newly-revised price estimate will be the key to locking in a deal to sell the Global Hawk to the South Korean military. DoD plans to ship over that new estimate to Seoul within weeks, according to industry officials familiar with the program. Recent estimates by DoD have put… Keep reading →

Washington: The South Korean government is threatening to walk away from an almost $400 million Global Hawk purchase unless the Pentagon can bring the price down. According to a recent report in the Korea Herald, top decision makers in Seoul claim the revised cost estimate out of the Pentagon for the four-plane deal is nearly… Keep reading →

Washington: What began as a plan to get the Air Force and Navy versions of the Global Hawk unmanned aerial system under a single control station is now going worldwide, a top industry official said today. The new common ground station being designed by Northrop Grumman for the Navy’s Broad Area Maritime Surveillance UAS and… Keep reading →

Washington: The old saying, ‘if it doesn’t make dollars, it doesn’t make sense’ has become more or less the mantra among attendees at this year’s Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International trade show. Affordability and cost savings have been the buzz words among the companies at this year’s show, for everyone from the top-tier defense… Keep reading →

Washington: The old saying, ‘if it doesn’t make dollars, it doesn’t make sense’ has become more or less the mantra among attendees at this year’s Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International trade show. Affordability and cost savings have been the buzz words among the companies at this year’s show, for everyone from the top-tier defense… Keep reading →

Washington: The Joint Staff wants the Navy and the Air Force to run two of their high-profile unmanned aerial drones from one control station, despite Navy efforts to scuttle the program. The Joint Staff told the service teams in charge of the Navy’s Broad Area Maritime Surveillance UAS and Air Force’s Global Hawk UAS to… Keep reading →