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Rapid Fire July 13, 2012: Birds With Clipped Wings
HawkerBeechcraft has begun low-rate production of its own AT-6C FAC turboprop, “in response to significant indications of interest around the world.” Unlucky day yesterday for 2 Colombian EMB-314...
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Rapid Fire July 26, 2012 – CBO to DoN: Get Real
Spending above the waterline The CBO(Congressional Budget Office) analyzed [PDF] the latest long-term shipbuilding plans of the US Navy and thinks that despite lowering the number of ships they intend...
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The US Navy’s Dual Band Radars
DBR on CVN-21(click to view full) The US Navy’s newest light cruiser and aircraft carrier designs offer a wide array of new technologies. One is the Dual-Band Radar (DBR) system, which can be scaled...
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NASA’s CCiCap: Can Space Taxis Help the Pentagon?
Dream Chaser & Atlas V(click to view full) With the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011, American manned missions to the International Space Station have mostly involved Russia’s Soyuz...
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Arming RQ-7 UAVs: The Shadow Knows…
RQ-7 Shadow(click to view full) By 2007, US Army RQ-7 Shadow battalion-level UAVs had seen their flight hours increase to up 8,000 per month in Iraq, a total that compared well to the famous MQ-1...
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Antonov’s Odyssey: AN-70 Program Taking Flight
AN-70(click to view full) Antonov’s AN-70 has had a long and difficult development history from its first studies and concepts in 1979. Roadblocks have included the dissolution of its sponsoring state...
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JLTV: Hummer v2.0, or MRAP Lite? EMD Phase Begins
Ultra APV demonstrator(click to view full) In an age of non-linear warfare, where front lines are nebulous at best and non-existent at worst, one of the biggest casualties is… the concept of...
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ATP-SE: LITENING Strikes as USAF Splits Future Targeting Pod Orders
Sniper on F-16(click to view full) At the end of September 2010, the USAF dropped something of a bombshell. Under their $2.3 billion Advanced Targeting Pod – Sensor Enhancement (ATP-SE) contract, the...
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Comanche’s Child: The USA’s New Armed Scout Helicopter
YRH-70 test, 2005(click to view full) The US Army’s Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) program aimed to replace around 375 Bell Textron OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopters, after the $14.6 billion...
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Turkey Sticks With Sikorsky: $3.5b for over 100 H-60 Family Helicopters
S-70i(click to view full) In 2011, the Turkish Utility Helicopter Program picked Sikorsky to continue providing its S-70 Black Hawk/ Seahawk helicopters over the next 10 years. The deal is for up to...
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Size Matters: Elbit’s Hermes 900 MALE UAV
Hermes 900(click to view full) Elbit Systems has enjoyed considerable domestic and export success with its Hermes 450, which sits at the smaller end of the MALE (Medium Altitude, Long Endurance) UAV...
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Hydra, Awakened: Guided Air-Ground Rockets
(click to view larger) Sen. Leahy’s [D-VT] worked in the mid-2000s to keep the Hydra 70mm rocket family alive through special appropriations, just in time for the Hydras’ potential on the battlefield...
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LAS in, LAS out: Counter-Insurgency Planes for the USA and its Allies
Winner(click to view full) The USA needs a plane that can provide effective precision close air support and JTAC training, and costs about $1,000 per flight hour to operate – instead of the $15,000+...
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Raytheon’s Datalink: A New Naval Standard for the Standard?
Dutch HNLMS Tromp(click to view full) As missile defense imperatives get stronger, and western defense budgets get weaker, one might expect both competition and cooperation to increase within this...
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Russia’s Yak-130 Trainer & Light Attack Jets
Yak-130(click to view full) Russia’s air force (VVS) aged badly in the wake of the Cold War, and the lack of replacements soon made itself felt in all areas. One of those areas involved advanced jet...
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Heat Vision: US Teen Series Fighters Getting IRST
IRST: B-2, ICU(click to view full) F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet Block IIs fighters are beginning to enter service with the US Navy and Australia, carrying significantly improved AN/APG-79 AESA radars and...
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The US Navy’s Dual Band Radars
DBR on CVN-21(click to view full) The US Navy’s newest light cruiser and aircraft carrier designs offer a wide array of new technologies. One is the Dual-Band Radar (DBR) system, which can be scaled...
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JMR-FVL: The US Military’s Future “Helicopters”?
The future is now(click to view full) The JMR-TD program is the science and technology precursor to the Department of Defense’s estimated $100 billion Future Vertical Lift program, which is expected...
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New Frontiers for Raytheon’s Excalibur GPS Guided Shells
Excalibur 155mm(click to view full) Sometimes, a basic improvement opens up entirely new opportunities. Raytheon’s one-piece M982 Excalibur rocket-boosted, GPS-guided shells are costly, but they offer...
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JLTV: Hummer v2.0, or MRAP Lite? EMD Phase Begins
Ultra APV demonstrator(click to view full) In an age of non-linear warfare, where front lines are nebulous at best and non-existent at worst, one of the biggest casualties is… the concept of...
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