Thursday, April 24, 2025
Key Issues RTX earnings Army budget 'Transforming in Contact'
Anduril Industries is launching a new partnership with machinery-maker FlackTek to develop and build a new mixing machine intended to increase the speed and scale of solid-rocket motor production, the company announced today.
With the Navy's focus placed squarely on deterring conflict with China in 2027, the service’s top officer will prioritize investments aimed at driving down maintenance delays and improving the readiness of existing ships, submarines and aircraft as she formulates fiscal year 2026 and 2027 budgets.
RTX's Pratt and Whitney has received a $1.3 billion Navy contract for continued work on the F135 engine core upgrade for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, according to a Monday Pentagon announcement.
The Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin two contracts worth up to a combined $3.2 billion for work on the Trident II D5 missile -- the submarine-launched ballistic missile used by both the United States and United Kingdom -- according to a Monday Pentagon announcement.
Australia and the United Kingdom will soon begin negotiations to establish a new bilateral defense treaty to "bind our AUKUS collaborations into law," defense officials said today, while also announcing the addition of Sting Ray torpedoes to Australian, U.K. and United States P-8 aircraft fleets.
The Navy fleet oiler Big Horn (T-AO-198) sustained damage while operating off the coast of Oman in the Arabian Sea this week, according to a Wednesday announcement from Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Roger Wicker (R-MS).
The Navy has awarded HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding two contracts totaling nearly $9.5 billion for three Flight II San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks and one America-class amphibious assault ship, the Navy announced today.
The Marine Corps is engaged in cost negotiations to drive down the price of its Amphibious Combat Vehicle program as funding shortfalls and rising prices put the program's acquisition objectives of 175 ACV-30 variants and 632 total ACVs at risk.
The Navy today announced its involvement in a new "public-private collaboration" with the United Submarine Alliance (USA), Qualified Opportunity Fund LP -- a private-equity fund that has purchased 355 acres from Alabama Shipyard that will be used to build submarine modules and expand industrial base capacity.
The Marine Corps' first Stern Landing Vessel, a converted civilian support ship leased from shipbuilder Hornbeck Offshore Services, is now on its way to Okinawa, Japan to exercise with the third Marine Expeditionary Force after a year of testing off the East and West coasts of the United States.
The House Appropriations defense subcommittee will hold a classified hearing on Navy shipbuilding this week, where panel Chairman Ken Calvert (R-CA) plans to grill Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro on delays and cost overruns facing many of the service’s ship and submarine programs.
Rolls-Royce has agreed to sell its naval propulsors and handling business to Fairbanks Morse Defense in an acquisition that will see three facilities producing propellers, waterjets and marine handling equipment change hands, according to Thursday announcements from the two companies.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti and Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith sent separate letters to Congress yesterday opposing the House GOP’s six-month stopgap spending package, saying the proposal would undermine readiness and threaten strategic priorities for both services.
Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro is publicly opposing the six-month continuing resolution proposed by House Republicans in a letter to lawmakers, warning the stopgap spending measure would further delay Columbia- and Virginia-class submarine production and cause various other problems for the sea service.
A bipartisan group of 12 senators is calling on the Pentagon to better leverage "transition programs" to recruit retiring servicemembers into the defense industrial base to fill workforce gaps that have hit submarine and shipbuilding programs especially hard.
The Navy has awarded General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. a $6.75 billion block-buy contract to produce up to eight additional John Lewis-class fleet replenishment oiler ships, the service announced today.
The Navy is asking industry to submit technology proposals for participation in Silent Swarm 2025, the fourth iteration of the annual experimentation series that looks to outfit attritable, unmanned systems with early development electromagnetic warfare capabilities.
The Navy will hold an industry day next month as it prepares to initiate a contract competition for a torpedo countermeasures system, the AN/SLQ-25E NIXIE, according to a Thursday service announcement.
The Navy has awarded Texas-based non-profit BlueForge Alliance a $951 million contract for submarine industrial base work, according to a Pentagon announcement.
The six-month continuing resolution proposed by House Republicans would delay funding for several Columbia-class submarines, driving further cost growth and schedule challenges for the already-strained program and jeopardizing modernization of the sea-based leg of the nuclear triad, according to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.