M24 sniper system(click to view full) Snipers have become critical assets in the current wars, and enemies who routinely use human shields have changed their profession from a group that was stigmatized even in their own armies, to widely appreciated specialists. In...
F-35A: incoming...(click to view full) The $382 billion F-35 Joint Strike fighter program may well be the largest single global defense program in history. This major multinational program is intended to produce an "affordably stealthy" multi-role fighter that will...
* Pentagon chief Robert Gates unveils a plan detailing $150 billion in service cuts and cost savings over the next 5 years, which will be reallocated to weapons programs. The most significant-but-overlooked item? Not any weapon, but the paperwork jihad: removal of 60%...
LITENING AT onto B-52(click to view full) "ATP-SE: LITENING Strikes as USAF Splits Future Targeting Pod Orders" covered the USAF's recent multi-year, dual-buy award of cutting-edge surveillance and targeting pods from Lockheed Martin (Sniper ATP-SE), and Northrop...
* Former Reagan defense official Lawrence Korb offers a plan to cut $1 trillion from Pentagon budget. * How videogames are changing the economy - and reversing a traditional role for military technologies. * South Korea plans to deploy Israeli-made Spike anti-tank...
Rafale w. Meteors(click to view larger) As 2011 begins, the French DGA made France the 4th customer nation to place production orders for MBDA's ramjet-powered Meteor missile, after Britain, Spain, and Sweden. The 200 missile order was placed through the multinational...
CH-47D Chinooks(click to view full) Boeing's Mesa, AZ operations recently won about $95 million in contracts to support the overhaul, repair, and recapitalization of the US Army's AH-64 Apache attack helicopter and CH-47 Chinook heavy transport helicopter fleets. Note...
* After a bit of a panic, US immigration has extended a deadline for American companies to certify, under penalty of perjury, that they're not improperly sharing "sensitive" information with foreign workers. The new deadline is Feb 20/11. * Meanwhile, the Pentagon has...
* $2 billion in Afghan infrastructure projects under the US military's Commander's Emergency Response Program [PDF] are in disrepair, according to a report by the Washington Post. See also McClatchey's ongoing coverage. * Meanwhile, the US Marines are less focused on...