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A X-47B during a March 2015 test flight. US Navy Photo
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — There are no plans to extend the testing for its Unmanned Carrier Air Vehicle demonstrator (UCAS-D) program after this month’s planned autonomous aerial refueling (AAR) tests, Naval Air Systems Command officials said on Tuesday. Read More
Northrop Grumman’s X-47B flies over USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) on May 14, 2013. US Naval Institute Photo
A test to prove an autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can be refueled in flight could happen by the end of this month, officials with Naval Air Systems Command told USNI News on Monday. Read More
An F-35C Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter on Nov. 3, 2014. The Navy included eight of the aircraft and 12 Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets in its FY 2016 Unfunded Priorities List to Congress. US Navy Photo
Upgrading the electronic warfare capabilities on ships and aircraft, modernizing destroyers and adding almost $2 billion in new aircraft topped the Navy’s list of wants in its unfunded priorities wish list to Congress. Read More
Northrop Grumman X-47B Unmanned Combat Air Systems Demonstration (UCAS-D). US Navy Photo
The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) is calling on the Department of Defense and the Navy to develop a stealthy and lethal unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for the Navy’s Unmanned Carrier Launched Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) aircraft, according to a Tuesday letter to Secretary of Defense Ash Carter obtained by USNI News. Read More
An EA-18G Growler from the Cougars of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 139 on the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) in January, 2015.Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work said Tuesday that electronic warfare would be a key component of maintaining the ability to win a guided munitions salvo in the future and needed additional investment. US Navy Photo
This post has been updated to include comments from vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. James “Sandy” Winnefeld.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Pentagon will formally create an Electronic Warfare (EW) Programs Council today, with the hopes of boosting the U.S. military’s waning technological edge in this area, Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work said on Tuesday.
Work, speaking at the Credit Suisse/McAleese 2016 Defense Programs Conference, said that the Pentagon’s Third Offset Strategy would center on winning a guided munitions salvo against an opponent, and EW capabilities would be pivotal to achieving this capability. Read More
Aircraft sit on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) on Oct. 29, 2014. US Navy Photo
The crew of USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) finished clearing clogged seawater intakes to allow the ship to depart for a Middle East deployment, Navy officials told USNI News on Wednesday. Read More
USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) participates in a strait transit exercise on Jan. 16, 2015. US Navy Photo
The Navy’s most technologically capable carrier, cruiser and destroyer are shipping out for a Middle East deployment on Monday, according to a release from Fleet Forces Command. Read More
AN/SLQ-32 “Slick 32” on a destroyer in 2009. US Navy Photo
Northrop Grumman has won the contract to develop the next generation system U.S. surface ships will use to jam or confuse incoming enemy missiles, according to a Navy announcement. Read More
An artist’s concept of a proposed Lockheed Martin UCLASS design. Lockheed Martin Image
SAN DIEGO, CALIF. – The first operational unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to be used on the Navy’s aircraft carriers needs to be developed with a “joint perspective,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work said during a Keynote speech at WEST 2015 on Tuesday. Read More
X-47B tail number 501 flies over USS Theodore Roosevelt on Aug. 17, 2014. US Naval Institute Photo
PENTAGON – The Navy has pushed its planned fielding date for its carrier-based unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from 2020 to 2022 or 2023, a Navy budget official told reporters in a late Monday afternoon briefing on the Navy’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget request to Congress. Read More
