WASHINGTON: The military can’t buy enough unmanned aerial systems to suit imagery-hungry combat commanders. Procurement programs are harder than ever to start in these days of ever-tightening defense budgets. And using a 20th Century defense acquisition system to buy 21st Century technologies often means getting too little too late too expensively anyway. What to do?… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The US Army is traditionally the most low-tech of the four armed services, but the quest for lighter, stronger armor for troops and vehicles alike puts them on the cutting edge of materials science, from advanced ceramics to carbon nanotubes. That’s the reason the Army made an award worth up to $90 million over… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: I walked past a sandy desert, a littoral waterway and a steamy jungle and watched a human-like robot extinguish a shipboard fire, all in about an hour and without leaving town. It was possible because the Navy has opened a new Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research (LASR) on the grounds of the Naval Research… Keep reading →

A YouTube video of an American AH-64 Apache attack helicopter crashing in Afghanistan has gone viral, with commentators expert and otherwise chiming in on the pilot’s mistakes and appropriate punishments. The International Security Assistance Force told the Pentagon-supported newspaper Stars and Stripes that they “believe the video shows a crash which occurred in Paktika province… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The Navy has begun a critical phase in its quest for a revolutionary weapon that could reach out and touch someone with massive force at more than 100 miles, without using an ounce of gun powder or rocket fuel. The Navy has fired six test shots with the first of two industry prototypes of… Keep reading →

ORLANDO: It is the most expensive conventional weapon system ever built. At least one government estimate puts the total cost of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter at roughly $1 trillion over the presumed 50-year life of the aircraft. The three F-35’s variants — one each for the Air Force, the Navy and the Marines —… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The proposition can’t be proven yet, but it’s likely some Marines in Afghanistan who might have been killed or wounded since mid-December by roadside bombs, aka IEDs, are alive and well today thanks to an experimental unmanned helicopter the Corps is testing. Between Dec. 17 and Jan. 12, two remotely piloted but largely automated… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The Navy’s weapon of the future will take one step closer to reality this month, as service officials prepare to test fire the first industry-built prototype of its fabled Railgun. ONR testers will fire off a BAE Systems-built version of the weapon next week at the Navy’s surface warfare center in Dahlgren, VA., according… Keep reading →

Washington: The Navy is beginning to make good on former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead bet that unmanned drones would be the future of the service. Naval Sea Systems Command delivered the first mini-ship like drones to Navy Riverine Group One stationed at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek in Virginia on Nov. 1.… 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 →