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
Technology leap needed for comms-on-the-move
Communications-on-the move technology must continue to evolve to keep intelligence data in motion and to feed it to the warfighter where and when it's needed.
Defense Systems
Marines get smart phone network for humanitarian missions
Lockheed Martin has developed a tactical smart phone network designed to support humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions undertaken by the Marine Corps.
Defense Systems
DOD wants smart jets to launch satellites into orbit
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has established a $145 million program to develop technology that will enable specially configured airliners to catapult satellites into orbit.
Defense Systems
Navy to outfit an X-47B prototype with refueling gear
The Navy plans to add aerial refueling capability to one of its two prototype carrier-based X-47B unmanned aerial vehicles that are in the development stage.
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
Navy facility to assess Shadow UAS payloads
The Navy’s Unmanned Aircraft System Test Directorate plans to test new technologies and payloads for the Shadow Tactical UAS at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md.
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
LightSquared's threat of legal action raises questions
A LightSquared spokesman has threatened to launch a legal counteroffensive to assert the company's "legal rights," but it is unclear whom the company would sue and for what it would sue.
Defense Systems
Army to test wall-scaling robot in Afghanistan
U.S. forces in Afghanistan in the near future might be able to use a robot that can leap over high walls to explore inside compounds and provide views through its built-in camera of possible threats that might lie inside.
Defense Systems
Navy picks contractor for C4ISR integration projects
The Navy has awarded a three-year, $139 million delivery order to CACI International to provide an array of communications technology to the Defense Department and other federal entities.
Defense Systems
Army creates project office to manage fixed-wing aircraft
The Army has activated a project office specifically to oversee all Army fixed-wing aircraft rather than having them operated independently by individual organizations and major commands.
Defense Systems
Army lists achievements of manned-unmanned aircraft demo
The Army's Manned Unmanned Systems Integration Capability exercise demonstrated the ability of all of the manned and unmanned systems involved to exchange video with each other and also the ability of operators to control the UAS payloads of the larger unmanned aircraft using universal ground stations and remote video terminals.
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.
Defense Systems
Tigershark UAV boasts two drones in one
Known as the Robotic Russian Doll of Death, a new drone heading for testing in 2012 would hide a smaller, warhead missile drone inside, enabling more accurate explosions and limiting collateral damage.
Defense Systems
Army, AAI collaborate on UAS payload development
AAI Unmanned Aircraft Systems has delivered a small and a miniature UAS to the Army's Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center that will be used to help develop various payloads for three classes of the UAS.
Defense Systems
Demand for better payloads to spur UAV tech advances
Global spending on payloads and subsystems for UAVs is expected to hit $2.9 billion this year as companies continue to enter the market or expand their existing capabilities to provide the equipment to conduct intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, communication and attack missions with UAVs.
Defense Systems