Defense

A North African country has ordered two MiG-29 fighter jets from Russia, with delivery expected this year, DefenceWeb has reported.

While the U.S. Marines are figuring out how to evolve their aviation operations to match MV-22 Osprey’s abilities, the Corps is looking to the Special Operation Forces (SOF) to work out some kinks in the tiltrotor aircraft’s communications,

Canada is ending its combat role in the air war against the Islamic State group, stopping airstrikes by its CF-18 aircraft by Feb. 22, according to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Recurring reliability issues, once thought to be resolved, raise concerns for U.S. Navy’s unmanned minehunting vehicle.

The U.K. Center for Maritime Intelligent Systems looks to unlock the potential of unmanned autonomous technologies for Royal Navy operations.

Why some very important military airplanes don’t look like military airplanes.

Many analysts see budget revelations as proof recent R&D efforts will be protected in future Pentagon spending plans.

By Southeast Asian standards, Vietnam is impressively modernizing its military. Singapore seems to be more than adequately armed for facing either of the two countries that surround it, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Business jets are becoming the platform of choice for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

Canadian Contributions | Bringing the BACN | Russian Helos to India | GPS IIF Constellation Complete

Recent budget relief aside, the Pentagon is still making tough tradeoffs in its latest budget plans, including favoring R&D over procurement.

The management of NASA’s highest funded field center, Johnson Space Center (JSC), believes it can meet expectations under the agency’s proposed 2017 budget.

The Pentagon is asking for $1.2 billion over the next five years to create a “next-generation” launch system program that would include developing propulsion systems.

With F-35 delays and continued expanded reliance on F-18 aircraft, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps are working hard to make the legacy Hornets last much longer than they were meant to, budget documents show.

ViaSat Inc. has pulled the plug on a launch this year of the ViaSat-2 Ka-band satellite atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy and will instead loft the 6,400-kg satellite on an Arianespace Ariane 5 ECA heavy-lift rocket in early 2017.

Satellite fleet operator and broadband service provider ViaSat says it will form a joint venture with Paris-based Eutelsat under a European-broadband partnership.

Satellite fleet operator and broadband service provider ViaSat says it will form a joint venture with Paris-based Eutelsat under a European-broadband partnership.

Higher power and deeper diving are keys to development for the U.S. Navy’s large-displacement UUV.

High-tech lasers for airborne targeting pods and ground operations are the specialty of a Finmeccanica unit in Scotland.

U.S. Navy’s Surface Force Commander has a vision: Add missiles to more surface ships and an enemy will confront multiple lethal threats.

Environmentally friendly plants in France and Italy destroy outdated munitions and guard their technology, while conforming to European health regulations.

Navies are making greater use of unmanned vessels to detect undersea threats and monitor traffic in coastal and blue-water environments.

The savings will also help preserve budgets for the new T-X trainer and the Joint Stars Recapitalization (JStars Recap) program, both of which were threatened with delay.

The U.S. Army’s aviation spending request for fiscal 2017 is $3.6 billion, down more than $2 billion from the $5.9 billion in the defense bill approved by Congress last year. However, it remains the largest segment of the Army’s $15.1 billion procurement request.

As much as RDT&E may look like a relative winner in budget plans, procurement plans have been scaled back to help meet overall Pentagon budget caps.