Block IV Cutaway (click to view full) Block IV Tomahawk is the current generation of the Tomahawk family of cruise missiles. The BGM-109 Tomahawk family began life in the 1980s as sub-sonic, low-flying nuclear strike weapons, before being developed into long-range...
China Articles
Up to $11.9B for B-52H Maintenance & Modernization
B-52H: flyin' low, dyin' slow... (click to view full) Officially, it's the B-52H Stratofortress. Unofficially, it's the BUFF (Big Ugly Fat F--cker). Either way, this subsonic heavy bomber remains the mainstay of the U.S. strategic fleet after more than 50 years of...
Virginia Block III: The Revised Bow
Virginia Block I-II (click for SuperSize) "GDEB Receives $148M as Virginia Class Lead Yard" described changes to the Virginia Class submarine's design that are expected to reach 20% of the $200 million savings goal by the time orders for the versatile sea attack/ land...
V-22 Osprey: The Multi-Year Buys, 2008-2021
(click to view full) In March 2008, the Bell Boeing Joint Project Office in Amarillo, TX received a $10.4 billion modification that converted the previous N00019-07-C-0001 advance acquisition contract to a fixed-price-incentive-fee, multi-year contract. The new...
Raytheon’s Standard Missile Naval Defense Family (SM-1 to SM-6)
SM-2 Launch, DDG-77 (click to view larger) Variants of the SM-2 Standard missile are the USA's primary fleet defense anti-air weapon, and serve with 13 navies worldwide. The most common variant is the RIM-66K-L/ SM-2 Standard Block IIIB, which entered service in 1998....
Eurofighter’s Future: Tranche 3, and Beyond
Italian Eurofighters (click to view full) The multi-national Eurofighter Typhoon has been described as the aerodynamic apotheosis of lessons learned from the twin engine "teen series" fighters that began with the F-14 and F-15, continued with the emergence of the...
Trident II D5 Missile: Keeping Up with Changing Times
Trident II D5 Test Launch (click to view full) Nuclear tipped missiles were first deployed on board US submarines at the height of the Cold War in the 1960s, to deter a Soviet first strike. The deterrence theorists argued that, unlike their land-based cousins,...
Australia’s MH-60R Maritime Helicopters
MH-60Rs fire Hellfire (click to view full) Australia's AIR 9000, Phase 8 project aimed to buy 24 modern naval helicopters to 16 existing S-70B-2 Seahawks, along with the disastrous A$1.1 billion, 11-helicopter SH-2G "Super Seasprite" acquisition attempt. With a total...
AW159 Wildcat: The Future Lynx Helicopter Program
Future Lynx naval (click to view full) In 2006, Finmeccanica subsidiary AgustaWestland received a GBP 1 billion (about $1.9 billion at 02/07 rates) contract from the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) for 70 Future Lynx helicopters, and began a new chapter in a long-running...


