Defense Systems

Strategic shift to Asia-Pacific plays to Navy, Marine Corps strengths

Crisis response, anti-piracy efforts and other maritime functions take on increasing importance as the Defense Department focuses on the Asia-Pacific region.

Defense Systems

Smaller footprint for Navy data centers will bring big savings

Service plans to shutter many centers while improving performance and cutting costs.

Defense Systems

Navy expo to focus on expeditionary force capabilities

The Navy League Sea-Air-Space Exposition will be held April 16-18 in National Harbor, Md., and Defense Systems staff will be at the show to provide timely and detailed coverage of speeches and presentations by top Navy and Marine Corps officials.

Defense Systems

NAVAIR plans 4G cell service for amphibious group

The Naval Air Systems Command plans to leverage commercial cellular technology to test the broadband communications capability aboard three ships in 2013.

Defense Systems

Navy sensor would hunt for pirate ships

The Navy is developing a sensor system for unmanned aircraft that would be able to distinguish a pirate vessel from other craft.

Defense Systems

MIDS JTRS terminal advances to full production

The U.S. military is moving a software-defined networking terminal that distributes information from the Joint Tactical Radio System into full production, and it will be fielded soon on several key Air Force and Navy weapons platforms.

Defense Systems

China's navy to develop UAVs to hunt submarines

China's People's Liberation Army Navy has begun deploying unmanned aerial vehicles aboard its ships. They may eventually hunt submarines.

Defense Systems

Navy seals the deal on critical cockpit contract

The Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin a $1 billion contract for high-tech common cockpits needed for helicopters in war zones and other threatening areas.

Defense Systems

Navy CYBERFOR provides backbone for manning, training and equipping

RADM Gretchen Herbert, commander, Navy Cyber Forces, discusses modernization and the challenges of simultaneously operating new and legacy systems.

Defense Systems

Navy halts Fire Scout flights after two crashes

Following two recent incidents that resulted in crashes, the Navy has put its MQ-8B Fire Scout flight operations on "operational pause."

Defense Systems

ScanEagle gets hydrogen-powered fuel cell

The successful test of a flight of a Boeing Insitu ScanEagle using a hydrogen-powered fuel cell will enable the unmanned aircraft system to carry an increased payload capacity.

Defense Systems

Poseidon P-8A delivered to Navy, ready for BAMS integration

Naval Air Station Jacksonville celebrated the arrival of the first new, network-enabled P-8A Poseidon multi-mission aircraft in late March.

Defense Systems

Mass layoffs loom large on defense industry horizon

The U.S. defense industry might experience hundreds of thousands of layoffs if members of Congress don't take action to head off an additional $500 billion in defense budget cuts that could take effect in January 2013, a top Pentagon official told Congress.

Defense Systems

Who will get to fly Navy UAVs?

The Navy has decided that unmanned aerial vehicles weighing more than 55 pounds will be operated as adjuncts to manned aircraft systems.

Defense Systems

Winners and losers in the fiscal 2013 budget

It's been several weeks since the release of the fiscal 2013 defense budget, and heads are certainly still spinning in the Pentagon. Here are some of the winners and losers at each of the services.

Defense Systems

Military training suffices for cyber qualifications, says Navy CIO

The Navy will give the same weight to military training completed in the IT and cyber fields that it does for commercial certification, said Terry Halvorsen, the Navy's CIO.

Defense Systems

Nothing proprietary in Navy CANES contract

The Navy's Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Service project to upgrade shipboard communications is off to a brisk start following an initial contract award in February.

Defense Systems

DOD must fix glitches in satellite programs, says GAO

The Defense Department continues to struggle on next-generation military satellite programs with such problems as cost overruns, shortages of ground-segment software and problems with beyond-line-of-sight terminals, reports the General Accountability Office.

Defense Systems

Navy dreams of ocean-traversing undersea robots

It may not be in the cards yet, but the Navy hasn't given up hope that one day it will have underwater UAS that can journey across the ocean. And in fact, some universities are already working on the technology.

Defense Systems

New names, new contract structures alter UAS market

The military unmanned aircraft systems market is changing in more ways than one.