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Unmanned Systems

Still Unhappy With Progress On Directed Energy Weapons, SWO Boss Wants More Land Based Testing To Speed Use On Ships

By Cal Biesecker

Tuesday, January 14th, 2025

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Still Unhappy With Progress On Directed Energy Weapons, SWO Boss Wants More Land Based Testing To Speed Use On Ships

Artist rendering of Lockheed Martin's HELIOS laser weapons system used on an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. (Image: Lockheed Martin)

Laser and high-powered microwave systems are key to increasing magazine depth aboard ships to defend themselves and other assets, but the technologies are not progressing as fast as needed and shifting their testing away from ships at sea to sites on land will accelerate introduction of these systems into the fleet, the commander of Naval Surface Forces said on Tuesday. Vice Adm. Brendan McLane said he “wants to instill a greater sense of urgency” and is still pushing for the…

Congress

House Authorizers Retain Battleship Funding, But Want Nuclear-Power Report

The House Armed Services Committee’s (HASC) Thursday markup of the FY 2027 defense authorization bill rejected an amendment to cut funding for the new Trump-class battleship (BBG(X)), but did agree […]

Congress

HASC Rejects $150 Billion Topline Cut, Iran Cost Transparency Proposals At NDAA Markup

The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) on Thursday rejected a Democrat-led proposal to cut the $1.15 trillion fiscal year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) by $150 billion, as the […]

HASC Wants Pentagon List Of Critical F-35 Technical Data Rights And Estimate Of Cost To Buy Them For Repairs

The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) wants the Pentagon to inform the committee of critical technical data rights for the Lockheed Martin [LMT] F-35 fighter and how much it would […]

Space

NRO Nominee: “We Have To Look Differently At Our Requirements”

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has said that it has launched more than 200 proliferated low Earth orbit satellites in the last two years to supplement the costly high-end systems […]