MilitaryAir Force Plans $1.7 Billion Retrofit Of APG-85 Radar On 181 F-35As In Lot 17 And Prior The Air Force’s fiscal 2027 future years defense plan (FYDP) contains more than $1.7 billion to retrofit 181 Lockheed Martin F-35As in Lot 17 and prior with the future Northrop Grumman AN/APG-85…
MilitaryUSAF To Modify Two B-52s To Carry F130 Engines This Year The U.S. Air Force Commercial Engine Replacement Program for the Boeing B-52J recently passed a Critical Design Review (CDR), according to the service. The passage of CDR allows Boeing’s San Antonio, Texas, plant to…
MilitaryMarines Tap Sikorsky, Robinson’s Unmanned R66 For Medium Resupply Drone Development Effort The Marine Corps has selected Sikorsky and Robinson Helicopter’s R66 Turbinetruck for the second increment of the Medium Aerial Resupply Vehicle–Expeditionary Logistics (MARV-EL) development program, the companies said on April 27. Sikorsky said it…
MilitaryAPG-85 Fielding May Come 9 Months Early, Estimated Unit Cost Of $8.8 Million The Air Force now expects to receive the first Northrop Grumman APG-85 radar for the F-35A fighter by Lockheed Martin in April 2028–nine months earlier than previously scheduled, according to the service’s fiscal 2027 procurement…
AI & AutonomyAir Combat Command’s EOU Tests Anduril’s YFQ-44A Last week, the Air Force’s Experimental Operations Unit (EOU) at Nellis AFB, Nev., tested an Anduril Industries YFQ-44A Fury prototype Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), which flew from a company site in southern California to…
MilitaryArmy’s Work With H-60Mx Black Hawk To Inform Bringing Autonomy To MV-75 FLRAA NASHVILLE, Tenn.–Army and Sikorsky officials said April 16 the service’s new Black Hawk outfitted to fly autonomously is serving as a testbed for bringing autonomy capability to the future MV-75 Cheyenne II…
MilitaryUSAF Seeking Advanced IR Countermeasures For HH-60Ws The Air Force is seeking industry feedback on an advanced infrared countermeasures system (AIRCM) that the service could use for its Lockheed Martin HH-60W Jolly Green II combat search and rescue (CSAR) helicopters. “The…
MilitaryBell Taps RTX’s Collins Aerospace To Provide Key Systems For MV-75 FLRAA RTX’s Collins Aerospace announced Monday it has secured multiple contracts from Bell to provide five key systems for the Army’s new MV-75 Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA). Collins said it has…
AI & AutonomyArmy’s SkyFoundry Plan To Build Own Cheap Drones Has ‘Evolved,’ Official Notes Commercial Involvement The Army’s SkyFoundry initiative to manufacture thousands of its own cheap drones on a monthly basis has recently “evolved,” with an official telling sister publication Defense Daily the program is “100 percent a…
AI & AutonomyWith an Eye To CCA Increment 2, Talon IQ Conducts Test Flight A “Talon IQ” Model 437 aircraft by Northrop Grumman‘s Scaled Composites has flown a mission autonomy test flight using the company’s Prism software and Hivemind software by Shield AI, the companies said on…