Defense Systems

Air Force awards C-130J enhancement contract

The new configuration for the Super Hercules aircraft will include a communications, navigation, surveillance/air traffic management data link, an enhanced inter-communication system, and updated Identification Friend or Foe, among other items.

Defense Systems

Air Force UAV operators face long hours, erratic schedules: survey

About half of the operators of Air Force unmanned aerial vehicles have high levels of job-related stress mostly tied to the long and erratic hours they work.

Defense Systems

Air Force Space Command CIO to get some help

Col. Kimberly Crider set ro rise to general, take role at Space Command.

Defense Systems

Predator C Avenger bound for testing in Afghanistan

The Air Force has ordered a single Predator C Avenger for deployment to Afghanistan as part of a procurement effort to meet an urgent request from Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to field reconnaissance and strike assets in theater.

Defense Systems

Army to hit civilian workforce with nearly 9,000 cuts

Cuts will come from 70 installations, 37 states, and eight commands and agencies.

Defense Systems

Air Force, Lockheed partner on reusable launch system

Lockheed Martin has won an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract potentially worth $250 million over five years to furnish technical support for the Air Force’s Reusable Booster System.

Defense Systems

Basic training enters unfamiliar territory in cyberspace

Today's troops are getting the latest in high-tech training and education to learn how to combat a fast-moving cyber threat.

Defense Systems

US military tests electronic warfare missile

The United States has built and tested a directed energy weapon designed to disrupt enemy electrical systems.

Defense Systems

Air Force to launch two more AEHF satellites in 2012

The Air Force has activated its Advanced Extremely High Frequency military communications satellite after a 14-month struggle to get it into the correct orbit.

Defense Systems

Cyber Command wants greater cyber warfare authority

The U.S. Cyber Command wants greater power to protect and defend America's cyber networks from aggressive action by other nations.

Defense Systems

Air Force wants to trim satellite costs

The Air Force wants to change how it develops, acquires and manages its satellite programs.

Defense Systems

Air Force must clean up its networks, general says

A top Air Force officer warns that if the service doesn't clean up and centralize its network management, critical command and control functions may be threatened.

Defense Systems

24th Air Force finds its place in cyberspace

Nearly two years after its launch, the 24th Air Force is defining its role in a rapidly expanding Defense Department cyber infrastructure.

Defense Systems

Air Force awards contract for cryptographic radio devices

In the first technology upgrade of the military’s portable radio devices in more than two decades, Raytheon Co. will design new lighter, power-efficient transmitter devices with more secure encryption technology.

Defense Systems

MILCOM to focus on attaining the full value of networks

The MILCOM 2011 conference, "Networks: Attaining the Value," will be held Nov. 8-10 in Baltimore, Md., and Defense Systems staff will be on site to provide detailed coverage of presentations made by featured speakers.

Defense Systems

Air Force looks for ways to ease pain of civilian job cuts

Details are beginning to emerge on which Air Force installations will be hardest hit by civilian jobs cuts related to the service's restructuring effort.

Defense Systems

Small, tactical systems fill aerial coverage gap

The Defense Department is sending more small unmanned aircraft to the war zone to plug gaps in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance coverage.

Defense Systems

Air Force to restructure civilian workforce, add ISR positions

The Air Force has announced that it will launch a major restructuring of its civilian workforce that will result in a net reduction of thousands of civilian jobs.

Defense Systems

Modularity in satellite design is key to quick response

The Operationally Responsive Space Office is driving changes that shorten development times for military satellites.

Defense Systems

Reaper UAVs hunt terrorists from base in Ethiopia

The U.S. Air Force is flying armed Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles on counterterrorism missions from a civilian airport in southern Ethiopia against the Somalia-based al-Qaeda affiliate known as al-Shabab.