Thursday, April 25, 2024
Key Issues Optical clocks Prototype funding SPAFORGEN
NATIONAL HARBOR, MD -- The MQ-8B Fire Scout program manager said today that the unmanned helicopter can be flown if a commander deems it operationally necessary, though no mission-related flights have occurred since two aircraft crashed earlier this year.
The Navy will begin extending the service lives of the first two F/A-18 Hornets slated to reach 10,000 hours later this year, Capt. Francis Morley, F/A-18 program manager, said yesterday at the Navy League's annual SeaAirSpace symposium at National Harbor, MD.
Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall approved the full production and fielding of the Multifunctional Information Distribution System portion of the Joint Tactical Radio System (MIDS-JTRS) in a recent acquisition decision memorandum.
The CH-53K heavy-lift helicopter will reach the fleet in fiscal year 2019 and the helo's first flight has been bumped a year to 2014, according to a top Marine Corps official and a recent Government Accountability Office report.
The Pentagon's acquisition executive appears set to approve the milestone B decision on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program within the next few days, Vice Adm. David Venlet, JSF program executive officer, told reporters on Capitol Hill today.
The Navy's new ship floor is likely to drop to around 300 once its force structure assessment, set to be presented to the Navy secretary "within a week," goes public, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert told reporters today at a breakfast hosted by the Defense Writers Group.
Part of the Navy's fiscal year 2013 budget request includes funds to send four minesweeping ships and four MH-53 mine countermeasures helicopters into the Arabian Gulf as a way of "setting the theater" to better counter the threat posed by Iran, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert told the Senate Armed Services Committee today.
Cost growth in the lead ship of the Gerald Ford-class of carriers, CVN-78, has ballooned beyond $1 billion over the original estimate, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus told the Senate Armed Services Committee today. He added that the Navy plans to ask for legislative relief on the congressionally mandated cost cap next year.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program will experience temporary cost growth in the short term due to a deferment of 179 aircraft over the future years defense plan, Vice Adm. David Venlet, JSF program executive officer, said today at a conference in Arlington, VA, hosted by Credit Suisse.
The Navy has begun "pre-milestone A activities" for an aircraft platform -- or a collection of manned or unmanned platforms -- that will replace the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, according to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus.
The Navy will wrap up a force-structure assessment that lays out the new ship floor -- or confirms the old 313-ship goal -- by the end of this fiscal year, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus told the House Appropriations defense subcommittee today.
The Navy's development of a new presidential helicopter has been delayed by a reworking of the analysis of alternatives, and while the new approach to VXX appears more promising, the program faces challenges, according to a Government Accountability Office report released today.
The Navy will be "taking risk" by planning toward a fleet of just 30 amphibious ships, one of many areas where the service will have to tighten its belt in the coming years, Rear Adm. Joseph Mulloy, the Navy's deputy assistant secretary of the budget, said today.
The Navy unmanned aviation community is anticipating a loaded year of important milestones for unmanned aircraft throughout the service, Rear Adm. William Shannon, program executive officer for unmanned aviation and strike weapons, said today.
The Navy is retiring seven CG-47 Ticonderoga-class cruisers early and slipping the construction of numerous ships to later budget years, the Defense Department announced today.
The Navy will take a close look at a looming cruiser and destroyer gap over the next several budget cycles to see how the problem might be mitigated, Vice Adm. Terry Blake, deputy chief of naval operations for integration of capabilities and resources (N8), said today.
About 15 percent of Navy ships are delivered to the fleet late, a number that industry needs to improve, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert said today at the Surface Navy Association's annual symposium in Arlington, VA.
The Pentagon's shift in military strategy that President Barack Obama announced last week could prove to be a boon for Navy unmanned programs and 10th Fleet, as leaders told the media last week that the services would shift their focus from large ground forces to the unmanned and cyber realms.
The Autonomous Aerial Cargo/Utility Systems effort spearheaded by the Office of Naval Research will likely incorporate a range of vertical-takeoff-and-lift platforms rather than just one specific platform, according to a concept of operations released last week.
The arresting hook system on the carrier variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is too short to reliably grab the cable on carrier decks upon landing and will require extensive modifications to fix -- and the aircraft may need a structural redesign if those don't work, according to an internal report on JSF concurrency dated Nov. 29 and provided to InsideDefense.com by a non-Defense Department source.