Americas Saab has won a $494-million contract to supply the US Army with XM919 Individual Assault Munitions (IAM). According to the US Department of Defense, the Swedish company’s proposal bested two others, but it did not reveal the names of the losing firms. Several...
Protective Systems – Aircraft Articles
F-35 Lightning: The Joint Strike Fighter Program
F-35B: off probation (click to view full) The $382 billion F-35 Joint Strike fighter program may well be the largest single global defense program in history. This major multinational program is intended to produce an "affordably stealthy" multi-role fighter that will...
US Army Awarded GD M10 Booker Combat Vehicle Deal | NG To Build Deep Space Radar | Kadena Continued F-15 Divestment Plan
Americas The Mayor of Iwakuni, Yoshihiko Fukuda, has agreed to the US Navy’s deployment of CMV-22 Osprey aircraft at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, marking the first stationing of this tilt-rotor variant in his city. The decision aligns with a broader realignment...
Aging Aircraft: USAF F-15 Fleet Sees Renewed Interest
F-15C over DC (click to view full) "Array of Aging American Aircraft Attracting Attention" discusses the issues that accompany an air force whose fighters have an average age of over 23.5 years - vs. an average of 8.5 years in 1967. One of the most obvious...
US Army Awarded SNC HADES System Integration Deal | South Africa Halts Artillery Shell Delivery To Poland | DoS Approves Apache Sale To Australia
Americas Technology company Shield AI has conducted a “groundbreaking” demonstration of coordinated autonomous flight on two Kratos MQM-178 Firejets. The planes were flown by the company’s Hivemind artificial intelligence pilots, collaborating to execute coordinated...
L3 Technologies Tapped For Growler Support | EWS Upgrade F-16s Meant For Ukraine | Taiwan Builds Harpoon Missiles
Asia-Pacific L3 Technologies won a $587.4 million contract for the design, production and delivery of electronic warfare test articles and fleet prototypes to include 11 pod simulators, eight operational prototype pods, four jettison mass model pods, two captive mass...
EA-18G Program: The USA’s Electronic Growler
EA-18G at Pax The USA's electronic attack fighters are a unique, overworked, and nearly obsolete capability. With the retirement of the US Air Force's long-range EF-111 Raven "Spark 'Vark," the aging 4-seat EA-6B Prowlers became the USA's only remaining fighter for...
AH-64E Apache Block III: Evolving Battlefield Roles
AH-64 in Afghanistan (click to view full) The AH-64 Apache will remain the US Army's primary armed helicopter for several more decades, thanks to the collapse of the RAH-66 Comanche program, and the retirement sans replacement of the US Army's Armed Reconnaissance...
Thomas Instrument Tapped For B-1B Remanufacture | DoS Approved AMRAAM Sale To Norway | India Approved For Anti-Sub Equipment Sale
Americas Thomas Instrument won a $9 million firm-fixed-price requirements contract for the remanufacture of the B-1B lower rudder and master pitch/roll servo-cylinder. Work will be performed in Brookshire, Texas, and is expected to be completed by Aug. 22, 2029. This...