Friday, December 6, 2024
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno said today that while the defense budget agreement reached by Congress last month will help the Army restore some readiness and modernization spending, projected cuts in the following years will bring back the imbalance the service has wrestled with since the implementation of sequestration.
Issues like interoperability and design challenges in tailoring weapons for individual unmanned aircraft systems must be addressed to further enhance the use of such systems in offensive roles, according to the Pentagon's new 25-year UAS roadmap.
Honeywell, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems have submitted solutions in response to a request for information released last month to provide situational awareness to helicopter pilots when flying in brownout conditions.
The budget agreement reached by Congress last week will reduce planned sequester cuts to the Defense Department by about half in fiscal year 2014, allowing the Army to avoid some of the debilitating reductions it was expecting, according to the Army's assistant deputy chief of staff for programs.
The Army has grounded its fleet of AH-64E Apache helicopters due to a transmission problem, and the service is working to determine the cause of the issue, according to an Army spokesman.
A proposed restructure of the Army's aviation fleets, shaped to deal with a dismal fiscal outlook and inevitable force reductions, includes the divestiture of the entire OH-58 Kiowa Warrior fleet and a plan to use AH-64 Apache helicopters -- mostly taken from the National Guard -- to meet its armed aerial scout mission, according to Army officials.
Former Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter instructed the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization to produce a detailed concept for future operations and propose how the organization could contribute to preempting "battlefield surprise" beyond countering IEDs, according to a Nov. 26 memo he sent to JIEDDO's director.
The Army's newest iteration of its Apache attack helicopter -- the AH-64E Guardian -- achieved initial operational capability last month as scheduled and is expected to deploy overseas in early 2014, the Army said today.
The United States will continue to provide two Patriot Air and Missile Defense Systems to Turkey for up to one additional year in order to bolster air defense systems on the Turkish-Syrian border, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said today during a meeting with Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
The Army may be delayed by as much as a year in building a site at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, for its Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System due to the continuing resolution in effect until mid-January, but that didn't stop the service from releasing a request for information on Nov. 12 looking for companies capable of constructing aerostat pads, roads and facilities for the system.
The Defense Department has decided to halt its plans to purchase additional Mi-17 helicopters from Rosoboronexport, a controversial Russian arms dealer with ties to President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria, according to Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX).
The Medium Extended Air Defense System took out two simultaneous targets coming from opposite directions in a final test today at White Sands Missile Range, NM, closing out the program's proof-of-concept phase, according to a statement from the managing agency for the program.
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) is calling for an investigation into whether the Army misused operations and maintenance funds to pay for further development of the Distributed Common Ground System-Army, the service's intelligence analysis framework, according to a letter he sent to Army Secretary John McHugh yesterday.
The Army is focusing on how to make its Gray Eagle unmanned aircraft system more expeditionary by applying lessons learned from the Air Force's MQ-1 Predator program and from the special operations community, the service's UAS project manager said.
The Army has selected UK-based UAV Engines Limited and Rockwell Collins to develop a new propulsion system for the Shadow unmanned aircraft system, according to the service's project manager for UAS.
The Army is preparing other brigades to employ as regionally aligned forces -- specifically in the U.S. Pacific Command and U.S. Southern Command areas of operation -- while its first regionally aligned brigade continues to successfully respond to U.S. Africa Command needs, according to the head of Army Forces Command.
The Army's commanding general in the Pacific argued today that the Army has assets and capabilities critical to the Air-Sea Battle concept.
The Army has not yet picked the two companies it wants to develop a new propulsion system for the Shadow unmanned aircraft system, according to a service spokesman.
A second forward-based AN/TPY-2 radar will be positioned at a base in central Japan within the next year to bolster defenses against the ballistic missile threat posed by North Korea, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced today.
The Army has awarded four technology investment agreements to Bell Helicopter, Sikorsky, AVX Aircraft Company and Karem Aircraft, Inc. -- to design Joint Multi-Role helicopter demonstrators, according to a service statement today.