June 10, 2022 | International, Aerospace
US Air Force awards contracts to start designing F-35 weapon
The stand-in attack weapon could be used to destroy enemy air defenses or ballistic missile launchers.
August 7, 2018 | International, Land
Marines increase ways to detect and kill air threats, from hobby drones to cruise missiles
By: Todd South
As Marine units face evolving drone threats from terrorist organizations and at the same time shore up their air defenses against near-peer air attacks, a few key pieces of gear in the most recent defense bill could vastly strengthen overhead protection.
Until recently, Marines tasked with taking down drones or short-range missiles had to link into a vast array of detection devices and then perform a practically 20th century task to take them out.
Essentially, a Marine with binoculars scans the air for drones while another Marine zeroes in with a Stinger missile ― first fielded in the 1980s but upgraded since ― to shoot down what is often a few hundred dollars' worth of a patched together, weaponized or surveillance-type commercial drone.
But a review of the past five years of Marine Corps budget requests and approvals for two systems, the Ground Based Air Defense-Transformation, or GBAD, and the Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar, or G/ATOR, have more than doubled in the past five years and are projected to maintain or increase from now until 2022, when a GBAD with a laser component is expected to field.
Beginning as far back as 2013, the Marines have been purchasing the G/ATOR, an advanced radar system that executes the function of a combined five legacy systems.
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December 19, 2024 | International, Naval
Germany triples submarine order to six boats in joint buy with Norway
The extra boats are in line with Germany's expanded defense and naval aspirations.
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June 3, 2021 | International, Aerospace, Security
GE Research Developing Handheld, Wearable Detector to Give First Responders Early Warning of Dangerous Chemicals in the Air
Will adapt GE's proven multi-variable gas sensing platform already commercialized and being used in the Oil & Gas and adjacent industries New Compact Vapor Chemical Agent Detector (CVCAD) to build upon past sensing developments highlighted in Nature Communications and Nature Electronics Journals New device's small size and wireless network connectivity will be designed for various defense applications in