RTXβs Raytheon lands $1.8B deal for U.S. Navyβs SPY-6 radar family
Raytheon, the RTX-owned defense manufacturer based in Andover, Massachusetts, announced that the U.S. Navy awarded it a $1.8 billion contract extension for hardware production and sustainment of the SPY-6 family of radars, building on an initial contract the company received in March 2022. The extension carries options that, if the Navy exercises all of them, [β¦]
A Ukrainian drone maker that helped push the Russian Navy out of much of the Black Sea is bringing its combat-tested kamikaze boats to American shipyards. UFORCE, the London-registered parent of Ukraineβs MAGURA unmanned surface vessel program, signed a memorandum of understanding this week with RECONCRAFT, the Alaska-founded builder of Special Operations combatant craft, to [β¦]
The U.S. Marine Corpsβ Program Manager Light Armored Vehicles held what the service calls a Marine Touchpoint event last month for the Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle, letting Light Armored Reconnaissance Marines get hands-on time with the new vehicle, including a test drive, months before the program reaches its next major design review. The Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle, [β¦]
A robotic gun mount built by a Texas firm just landed a spot on one of the Marine Corpsβ most important counter-drone vehicles, giving Marines a way to turn an ordinary machine gun into an autonomous, AI-guided weapon. Allen Control Systems announced that the Marine Corps selected its Bullfrog autonomous weapon station for the serviceβs [β¦]
Two Chinese research ships pushed north through American waters off Alaska this week, and for the first time this year, they didnβt just skirt past the edge of U.S. territory, they crossed directly through it. The U.S. Coast Guard confirmed it tracked the Chinese research vessel Xue Long as it transited north through the United [β¦]
A U.S. Navy security boat escorted an unfamiliar uncrewed vessel out of Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, and the open-source account Aviation and Naval Assets shared photos and video of a boat that does not match any publicly known U.S. Navy drone design currently in service. The account, which tracks military aviation and naval hardware [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¦]
A 17-meter robotic ship built to patrol the ocean alone for nearly two months at a stretch has just rolled off a British production line, and its arrival says as much about where naval technology is headed as it does about the vessel itself. ZeroUSV, a Plymouth-based maker of uncrewed surface vessels, confirmed that its [β¦]
Somewhere on the flight deck of a future U.S. aircraft carrier, a jet could be preparing to launch into contested airspace nearly 1,900 kilometers (1,151 miles) away, refuel itself mid-flight if needed, evade enemy threats, and strike a target, all without a single pilot strapped inside the cockpit. Thatβs the future the U.S. Navy just [β¦]
The U.S. Navy has committed up to $42.7 million to keep that cable, and the sensitive electronics packed inside it, working and improving for the next five years. The Department of War awarded the contract to L3 Technologiesβ Chesapeake Sciences Division, a Millersville, Maryland-based company that has spent more than a decade building the Navyβs [β¦]
A satellite passing over southern Russia captured the aftermath Tuesday evening, and the image leaves little room for doubt: the Russian border guard ship Izumrud sits partially submerged against its pier, the surrounding dock scorched black from fire, exactly as Ukraineβs navy said it would be after announcing the shipβs destruction earlier the same day. [β¦]
Ghostworks, a boutique shipyard based in Holland, Michigan, introduced MRLN, the Multirole Remote Logistics Node, on July 14 at the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit, an event hosted by U.S. Senator Dave McCormick at the Army War College in Carlisle. MRLN is not a boat itself but a remote-piloting and autonomy system that installs onto [β¦]
Ukraineβs navy sank a Russian border guard ship near Novorossiysk using an unmanned strike boat. The Ukrainian Navy said its sailors sank the Rubin-class patrol ship Izumrud (354), a Russian Federal Security Service border guard vessel, using the Sargan-3000, a domestically built unmanned surface strike platform that has entered service with Ukraineβs naval forces over [β¦]
Two German defense companies just proved a submarine can fire a scout instead of a torpedo, completing sea trials of an uncrewed boat small enough to launch from a standard torpedo tube and surface on its own to spy on an enemy without ever putting the submarine itself at risk. GABLER, a German firm known [β¦]
The U.S. Navy has handed a Florida shipping company the job of building a fleet the Marine Corps says it needs to survive a fight with China, awarding TOTE Services a $2.2 billion contract to manage construction of up to eight new landing ships across multiple American shipyards simultaneously. The contract, announced July 13, makes [β¦]
An Australian-designed cargo ship just did something no purpose-built military landing vessel has managed before, driving stern-first onto a beach near Darwin, holding position while it dropped a ramp wide enough to drive tanks off, then reversing back out to sea in under a minute. The 73-meter (240-foot) vessel, named Matilda 1, is a stern [β¦]
The U.S. military has now named the exact weapon it used to make history over the weekend, confirming that three Saronic-built Corsair unmanned boats carried out the first combat strike ever conducted by American sea drones, slamming into a submarine and ship maintenance facility at Iranβs Bandar Abbas Naval Base. U.S. Central Command detailed the [β¦]
Ukrainian forces have carried out what the military describes as the worldβs first known combat mission combining a naval drone with an armed ground robot, using an unmanned surface vessel to ferry a machine-gun-equipped robotic vehicle across the Black Sea and land it directly on Russian-occupied shoreline, United24 Media reported July 13, citing Ukraineβs 123rd [β¦]
U.S. Marines with 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion spent early June learning to handle a boat the Marine Corps has bet will let small reconnaissance teams operate across the scattered islands of the Western Pacific without waiting for a ship to carry them there. The unit, part of 3rd Marine Division, conducted familiarization training with the Multi-Mission [β¦]
U.S. Central Command struck dozens of targets across Iran on Sunday using one-way attack sea drones for the first time in the conflict, a new addition to a strike package that already included fighter aircraft, naval vessels, and one-way attack aerial drones, marking the fourth round of American strikes against Iran since Tehran resumed attacks [β¦]