Congress ordered the Pentagon to establish an independent team consisting of subject matter experts to review the development of software for the Joint Strike Fighter program.
The House Armed Services Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee asked the Pentagon to submit a report by March 3, 2014 as part of the committee’s markup of the 2014 defense budget. The F-35 software program has served as one of the largest challenges for program engineers to keep on schedule. [Continue reading…]
Congress has ordered the Army to reconsider its initial refusal to stand up a cargo drone program despite the success the Marine Corps has had flying Lockheed Martin’s K-MAX unmanned cargo helicopter in Afghanistan.
The House Armed Services Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee commended the Marine Corps for the performance of the K-MAX cargo helicopters that have flown missions in Afghanistan since November 2011. [Continue reading…]
The U.S. Navy successfully conducted a first test-flight of its MQ-4C Triton aircraft, a wide-spanning 47-foot long surveillance drone equipped with high-tech, next-generation sensors able to conduct surveillance, reconnaissance and communications-relay missions over thousands of miles ocean, service officials said.
During the 80-minute flight in restricted airspace in Palmdale, Calif., the MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft, controlled by ground-based Navy and Northrop Grumman personnel, reached 20,000 feet, according to a Navy statement. [Continue reading…]
Congressional Republicans say they support the U.S. military’s laser weapons and directed-energy programs designed to protect troops by zapping apart potential threats, from incoming rockets to drones flying overhead.
A panel of the House Armed Services Committee singled out the Army’s Solid State Laser Testbed and the Navy’s Laser Weapon System as “items of special interest” in its draft of the 2014 defense authorization bill, which sets policy goals and spending targets for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. [Continue reading…]
The U.S. president should tell the leader of China’s communist party that its cyber attacks against Western targets threaten to undermine the Chinese economy and social order, an analyst said.
When asked what President Barack Obama should say to President Xi Jinping at their next meeting in June, James Mulvenon, a vice president at Defense Group Inc., a technology company in Vienna, Va., was blunt. [Continue reading…]
