U.S. Air Guard to buy motorized paragliders for silent infiltration flights
A North Carolina Air National Guard unit, part of the U.S. militaryβs part-time reserve force, wants to give its people the ability to quietly fly themselves into places a helicopter would get shot down trying to reach, and the shopping list it just published reads less like a defense contract and more like gear for [β¦]
The U.S. Department of the Air Force published a market research notice this week seeking companies capable of designing, developing, prototyping, manufacturing and fielding what it calls a Semi-Autonomous Collaborative Platform, government shorthand for an uncrewed jet aircraft smart enough to fly and fight alongside a piloted fighter without a human controlling every move. The [β¦]
U.S. Marine Corps attack and utility helicopters are heading into a major upgrade built specifically to carry the next generation of weapons, and the electrical rewiring needed to make that possible just landed a $33.6 million contract. Naval Air Systems Command handed Bell Textron, the Fort Worth, Texas manufacturer that builds both helicopters, the deal [β¦]
The U.S. Defense Logistics Agency awarded Rockwell Collins ESA Vision Systems, a Fort Worth, Texas company, an estimated $333 million contract to supply spare parts and repair services for the Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System, a fighter pilotβs helmet that doubles as a targeting computer. The system, known in defense circles by its acronym JHMCS, [β¦]
The U.S. Space Development Agency, the Pentagon office building Americaβs next generation of missile-tracking satellites, awarded General Dynamics Mission Systems a contract with a ceiling of $400 million to develop the ground segment for Tranche Three of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, the governmentβs name for a sprawling network of satellites meant to give American [β¦]
Three countries have taken a real step toward keeping their new stealth fighters flying without shipping them back to Texas every time something breaks, and the Pentagon just handed Lockheed Martin $23 million to make it happen. The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command awarded Lockheed Martin Corporation, the Fort Worth, Texas defense giant that builds [β¦]
An electric motor smaller than a coffee mug might decide whether Americaβs drone army flies during the next crisis, and the U.S. Army has placed a nearly $80 million bet on building that motor at home instead of buying it from a country Pentagon planners increasingly view as an adversary. The Department of War announced [β¦]
AM General, the South Bend, Indiana manufacturer that has built the Humvee since the 1980s, was awarded a $98.7 million contract modification, according to a Department of War contract announcement, adding to an existing agreement for various models of the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, commonly known as the Humvee. The modification pushes the total [β¦]
TCOM LP, based in Columbia, Maryland, was awarded a $447 million contract by U.S. Army Contracting Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, to handle production, fielding, sustainment and lifecycle support for the Persistent Surveillance Systems-Tethered family of systems, an aerostat-based surveillance program the Army has relied on for more than a decade. The contract itself [β¦]
The Pentagonβs Space Systems Command awarded Rocket Lab USA a $266 million contract for suborbital launch services, according to a Department of War contract announcement, covering 12 confirmed launches with an option for six more, all to be conducted from the Pacific Spaceport Complex on Kodiak Island, Alaska, through the end of 2028. The contract [β¦]
Johns Hopkins Universityβs Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, won a contract worth $199 million to provide research and development engineering support for the Sentinel program, the effort to replace the nationβs aging fleet of Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles, with work continuing through July 2029. Sentinel, formally designated the LGM-35A, represents the Air Forceβs [β¦]
The U.S. Air Force has handed a Georgia drone maker a contract worth up to $90 million to build small, expendable aircraft designed to deny enemies the ability to fly. Tandem Defense, based in Richmond Hill, Georgia, won a new contract, meaning the U.S. Air Force can order any quantity of equipment up to the [β¦]
The U.S. Air Force wants to install a network of microphones at one of its most secretive bases in England, built specifically to hear enemy drones coming before anyone ever sees them. A newly published Air Force solicitation reveals that the 352nd Special Operations Wing at RAF Mildenhall is seeking a passive acoustic drone detection [β¦]
The U.S. State Department approved a possible sale to Greece of Switchblade 300 Block 20 systems, a portable loitering munition built by AeroVironment (AV) that a single soldier can carry, launch from a tube in under two minutes, and fly toward a target before the drone itself explodes, destroying both the target and the aircraft [β¦]
The U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Centerβs Command, Control, Communications, and Battle Management Directorate at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio published a market research notice this week seeking industry information on a new ground-based launcher built to shoot down both cruise missiles and drones ranging from small commercial-style quadcopters up to large, fixed-wing [β¦]
The U.S. Air Force awarded Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, the Norwegian company that builds the weapon, $98.4 million to produce the next batch of Joint Strike Missiles, with work taking place at Kongsbergβs factory in Norway and wrapping up by June 30, 2030. The Joint Strike Missile, known by its American designation AGM-184A, solves a [β¦]
The worldβs first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is finally getting torn apart, and this time the Navy is paying more than $118 million less than it originally planned to spend doing it. The U.S. Navy awarded NorthStar Maritime Dismantlement Services, based in Vernon, Vermont, a $418.5 million contract to completely dismantle, recycle, and dispose of the [β¦]
The U.S. Army handed Lockheed Martin roughly $439 million to begin building the Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, along with the launcher hardware needed to fire it, and once the two sides finish hammering out the final terms, the full agreement is expected to grow to nearly $900 million. ATACMS is a surface-to-surface [β¦]
A robot small enough to throw through a window and tough enough to survive a five-story fall onto concrete is headed to Tunisiaβs military, part of a U.S. arms sale that will let North African soldiers see around dangerous corners before anyone has to walk into them. The U.S. Armyβs Contracting Command at Aberdeen Proving [β¦]
The U.S. Air Force has told its biggest missile maker to build thousands more long-range weapons than it planned even a week ago, and the jump says a lot about how worried the Pentagon has become about running out of precision missiles in a real war. An amended government notice posted Wednesday raised the planned [β¦]