16 août 2019 | International, Naval
The Marine Corps is nearly doubling the number of Joint Light Tactical Vehiclesit plans to buy to replace its fleet of aging Humvees, officials said this week.
The planned increase -- up to about 15,000 from the 9,000 the service initially planned to buy -- comes as the Marine Corps recently declared the JLTV has reached initial operating capability and is ready to deploy with Marines into combat.
The JLTV is the result of a joint effort by the Army and the Marine Corps to field a more capable tactical vehicle after seeing how the Cold War-era Humvee could not protect troops from the powerful, homemade bombs enemy forces used on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Corps had originally planned on buying just 5,500 JLTVs but later increased that number to 9,000. Even with that increase, the Marines maintained earlier this year that the JLTV would replace only about 60 percent of the service's Humvees over the next decade.
21 juillet 2021 | International, Naval
The chief of naval operations remains firm that the fiscal 2022 budget request is well aligned with the U.S. Navy’s future fleet design plans – even if current spending levels would force the fleet to shrink instead of grow towards the 355-ship goal.
21 décembre 2023 | International, Terrestre
22 janvier 2020 | International, Aérospatial
By: Tom Kington ROME — A new 24-hour-endurance drone built by Italy's Leonardo has made its maiden flight in trials run in cooperation with the Italian Air Force, the firm said. The Falco Xplorer, an evolution of earlier Falco models, flew for 60 minutes from Trapani Air Base in Sicily on Jan. 15 in a dedicated flying area before landing safely, Leonardo reported. First launched last year at the Paris Air Show, the Xplorer offers a maximum payload of 350kg, a maximum takeoff weight of 1.3 tons, and it can operate above 24,000 feet. The Italian firm is offering the drone with its Gabbiano T-80 radar, SAGE electronic-intelligence system, an electro-optical turret and a hyperspectral sensor for monitoring pollution and agriculture. Aimed at both civilian and military customers, the Xplorer will feature satellite navigation, while pending flight tests will aim to certify the aircraft to NATO'S STANAG 4671 standard. In its statement, Leonardo said the Xplorer was not subject to International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) restrictions, making it widely available for export around the world. The drone is the third evolution in the Falco family, which includes the Falco and the larger Falco EVO, which offers 15 hours endurance. Before its launch last year, Leonardo CEO Alessandro Profumo said the Xplorer will “overlap with the Predator A - it would be a new product for Predator A customers.” The UN and the European Union's frontier protection agency Frontex are among existing customers of the Falco, while national customers are thought to be Jordan, Saudia Arabia, Pakistan and Turkmenistan. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/01/20/leonardo-flies-new-falco-xplorer-drone