Defense Watch

Delivering Ground Before Launch. U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has said that the ground elements of space programs have traditionally come with big headaches. Assistant Secretary of the Air […]

Rheinmetall Ammo. Germany’s Rheinmetall said on Feb. 17 it plans to open a new ammunition plant in Ukraine. Rheinmetall and an unnamed “Ukrainian partner company” have established a new joint […]

F-35 International Backfill. On Feb. 15, Sheila Kahyaoglu, a defense/aerospace equity analyst at Jefferies, wrote that Lockheed Martin “has a backlog/commitments for nearly 3,500 F-35s with the program generating about […]

USAF Munition Multi-Years. U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall says that multi-years “incentivize” industry production line investments and give companies “some assurance that they’re gonna have funding for continued acquisition […]

FMTV Extension. The Army plans to extend its Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) contract with Oshkosh Defense for an additional three years, estimating it may order an additional 1,343 […]

Aussie-Japanese UUVs? The Australian Defense ministry said it signed a bilateral research agreement with Japan focused on undersea autonomy. The agreement is between Australia’s Defense Science and Technology Group and […]

Drone Connectivity. A General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger demonstrated “hardware-agnostic, open standard-based autonomy” for Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAVs) in a flight test on Nov. 13, the company said this week, […]

Autonomy Prime. The U.S. Air Force’s innovation arm, AFWERX, said that it plans to release an Innovative Capabilities Offering and Autonomy Prime’s first fly-off solicitation in the near future for […]

This Motor’s a GEM. Northrop Grumman’s 63-inch diameter, extended length Graphite Epoxy Motor 63XL (GEM 63XL) is to debut on the first flight of United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Vulcan Centaur […]

Upcoming Coyote Buy. The Army plans to purchase at least 6,700 Coyote kinetic and non-kinetic interceptors to counter enemy unmanned aircraft systems “operating at various speeds and altitudes which are […]