October 11, 2018 | International, Land
WASHINGTON — The Army is at an inflection point. It's a statement its top leaders have acknowledged countless times in recent months as they have made the case to begin major investment in future capability.
But to bring online state-of-the-art technology and weapons and equipment that will maintain overmatch against peer adversaries like Russia and China, the Army will need money. Lots of money.
And that means, at some point soon, the Army will have to make difficult decisions on how long legacy weapon systems and planned upgrades for those capabilities can — or should — carry the service into the future.
It is Army Secretary Mark Esper and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley's goal and mandate to have a fully modernized Army that aligns with the service's multidomain operations doctrine by 2028.
It logically follows that to get there, much has to happen in the 10 years between now and then.
The Army wants longer-range fires, new combat vehicles and tanks, two new helicopters, highly capable autonomous vehicles and aircraft, a robust and resilient network tying together everything on the battlefield, a layered and more advanced air-and-missile defense capability and more lethal systems for warfighters.
These capabilities all fall under the Army's top six modernization priorities, which the service laid out a year ago in an overarching modernization strategy.
The Army then stood up Army Futures Command — a new four-star command — that will focus on rapidly bringing online modernized equipment and weapons that fit under the top six priorities. And it put a general officer in charge of a cross-functional team for each priority to advance prototypes and technology development.
May 10, 2021 | International, Land
Anglo-German armored vehicle-maker Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land has signed a deal with the British Defence Ministry to upgrade Challenger 2 main battle tanks.
February 18, 2020 | International, Aerospace
ByEd Adamczyk Feb. 17 (UPI) -- A solar-powered unmanned aircraft with a wingspan of 114 feet completed its maiden high-altitude flight in the stratosphere, maker BAE Systems said on Monday. The plane, called PHASA-35, which stands for Persistent High altitude Solar Aircraft and its wingspan measured in meters, is meant to fly about 32 miles above the earth in the space, in the upper atmosphere between conventional aircraft and satellites. The aircraft's solar-powered batteries could allow it to stay aloft for over a year at a time, providing a stable platform for monitoring, surveillance, communications and security applications. It can also offer military and commercial customers with capabilities not available from existing air and space platforms, and could be used in communications networks disaster relief and border protection at a fraction of the cost of satellites, BAE said in a statement. The plane, which went from proof of capability to testing in only 20 months, is underwritten by Britain's Science and Technology Laboratory and Australia's Defense Science and Technology Group, and built by BAE Systems and its subsidiary, Prismatic Ltd. Its flight trials were successfully completed at the Royal Australian Air Force Woomera Test Range in South Australia. "To go from design to flight in less than two years shows that we can rise to the challenge the U.K. government has set industry to deliver a Future Combat Air System within the next decade," said Ian Muldowney, engineering director at BAE Systems. Additional test are scheduled for later this year, with plans to enter initial operations with customers within 12 months. Airbus is among companies competing in the high-altitude, long-endurance category of planes, and in 2019 completed a 26-day test flight of its solar-powered Zephyr S "High Attitude Pseudo-Satellite." https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2020/02/17/BAE-successfully-tests-solar-powered-high-altitude-plane
August 3, 2024 | International, Security
The U.S. Defense Department will move a fighter jet squadron to the Middle East and maintain an aircraft carrier in the region.