Americas * Orbital ATK has been awarded a $121.3 million contract by the US Navy to provide conversion services of old stocks of US government-provided AGM-88B high-speed anti-radiation missiles. The conversion will see the munitions turned into 145 full-rate...
AIM-120D Deployed Early in Pacific | Saudis May Get Bunker Busters | A-400Ms Grounded, Waiting for Crash Data
Americas * General Electric Aviation was awarded a $2 billion IDIQ contract Friday in part to fulfill a Foreign Military Sale to Taiwan for the company's T700 engine, with the contract stretching to 2020. The T700 engine family powers a number of US-manufactured...
AFSO 21 Team Cuts AIM-120D AMRAAM Delivery Time by 6 Months
AIM-120D into F-22A(click to view full) The AIM-120D AMRAAM Production Program Manager was a bit skeptical when he was asked to be team leader on a rapid improvement event under the "Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st century" process improvement framework. By...
$21.8M for New AIM-120D AMRAAM Lead Materials
AIM-120C from F-22A(click for missile zoom) Designation-Systems notes that AIM-120D (aka. AIM-120C-8) is a development of the F-22 optimized AIM-120C with a two-way data link, more accurate navigation, an expanded no-escape envelope, improved High-Angle Off-Boresight...
NG Modernizes US Litening Secure Data Links | DoS Approved FMS To Tunisia | JMSDF Chose SeaGuardian
Americas The US Department of Defense has introduced a new strategy aimed at enhancing the protection of military facilities and personnel from the growing threat of drones. While the strategy itself is classified, an unclassified fact sheet details its broader scope,...
AMRAAM: Deploying & Developing America’s Medium-Range Air-Air Missile
AIM-120C from F-22A (click for test missile zoom) Raytheon's AIM-120 Advanced, Medium-Range Air to Air Missile (AMRAAM) has become the world market leader for medium range air-to-air missiles, and is also beginning to make inroads within land-based defense systems. It...
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...
Eurofighter’s Future: Tranche 3, and Beyond
Italian Eurofighters (click to view full) The multi-national Eurofighter Typhoon has been described as the aerodynamic apotheosis of lessons learned from the twin engine "teen series" fighters that began with the F-14 and F-15, continued with the emergence of the...
P-8 Poseidon MMA: Long-Range Maritime Patrol, and More
P-8A Poseidon (click to view full) Maritime surveillance and patrol is becoming more and more important, but the USA's P-3 Orion turboprop fleet is falling apart. The P-7 Long Range Air ASW (Anti-Submarine Warfare) Capable Aircraft program to create an improved P-3...
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...