March 30, 2022 | International, Land
The Missile Defense Agency is prioritizing efforts to go up again evolving threats like hypersonic weapons and cruise missiles including funding for a new missile defense architecture on Guam and development of a glide-phase hypersonic weapon interceptor in its FY23 budget request.
September 20, 2018 | International, Aerospace
Lee Hudson and Steve Trimble | Aerospace Daily & Defense Report NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland—The U.S. Air Force still is aiming to release the final solicitation for light attack aircraft in December and continues to discuss the findings of its recent light attack experiment with international ... Full article: http://aviationweek.com/awindefense/usaf-targets-light-attack-final-rfp-december
August 3, 2018 | International, Naval
By: Ben Werner WASHINGTON, D.C. – Fiscal Year 2019 money for a Coast Guard heavy polar icebreaker is frozen on Capitol Hill, but the service's commandant is optimistic the project will ultimately be funded. The Senate's Fiscal Year 2019 Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill includes $750 million for the heavy icebreaker but the House version zeroed-out the heavy icebreaker money for the year to make additional funds available for building a barrier along the U.S. southern border. The department's border wall budget request was for $1.6 billion, but House appropriators recommended spending $5 billion on border security infrastructure, according to the Homeland Security Funding bill approved last week by the House appropriations committee. However, there is still time to make the case for restoring polar icebreaker funding, Adm. Karl Schultz, the new Coast Guard commandant, said on Wednesday at a Maritime Security dialogue hosted by the U.S. Naval Institute at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The Senate marked up their version of the project and the $750 million (for a heavy icebreaker) was still in. That bill has to be conferenced,” Schultz said, referring to the process where members of both the Senate and House iron out differences in their appropriations bills before each chamber votes on the new unified version. The process is long and because of some of the contentiousness surrounding funding for Department of Homeland Security programs, Schultz said there's a strong chance a final bill will not be considered until after the fall midterm elections. Along with overseeing the Coast Guard, DHS is in charge of several agencies governing immigration, customs and border control. Building a heavy polar icebreaker has strong support inside the Trump administration, Schultz said. His superiors – both the secretary of Homeland Security and President Trump – support the project. Trump even mentioned the project during his remarks at the June 1 change of command when Schultz took charge of the Coast Guard. Full article: https://news.usni.org/2018/08/01/35453
January 13, 2021 | International, Aerospace
Mark Pomerleau WASHINGTON — Northrop Grumman announced an Air Force award to complete a project for the electronic warfare suite for the F-16 fighter jet. The goal of the prototyping is to protect pilots from increasing radio frequency-guided weapons by detecting, identifying and defeating them, a Jan. 11 announcement from Northrop said. A company did not provide a dollar amount for the award, granted under the Pentagon's other transaction authority. Initially selected in 2019 to prototype a design, Northrop was asked to design an internally mounted electronic warfare suite and digital radar warning receiver for F-16s, Ryan Tintner, vice president, navigation, targeting and survivability at Northrop, said in an emailed statement. Northrop's system will provide radar warning and advanced countermeasure capabilities and will be compatible with Northrop's AN/APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) aboard F-16s. As these aircraft acquire modern active electronically scanned arrays, such as the SABR, the F-16′s electronic warfare capabilities must integrate with those sensors, Tintner said. “The electronic warfare suite will significantly increase protection to F-16 operators as they execute their missions in increasingly contested environments,” Tintner said. “This system draws on the best of our experience from multiple programs to create an effective and affordable solution to keep the Viper relevant throughout its service life.” The design uses open systems, ultra wide-band architecture for greater instantaneous bandwidth to react to modern threats, and it is scalable to meet operational needs of the U.S. and international partners, the company added. Northrop received notification for this downselect in November 2020. https://www.c4isrnet.com/electronic-warfare/2021/01/12/northrop-will-provide-f-16-electronic-warfare-system/