The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has shelved a proposal to use the F-35 to shoot down ballistic missiles, and paused another study looking at firing lasers at missiles from unmanned aircraft systems, the agency’s director said March 4.
The U.S. Defense Department plans to invest billions of dollars to begin mass-producing a new class of hypersonic missiles, a senior defense official said March 4.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is close to launching the competitive phase for the Next Generation Interceptor program, said Vice Adm. Jon Hill, the agency’s director, on March 4.
The Regional Glide Phase Weapon System—a concept for an interceptor against a hypersonic glide vehicle—will be initially constrained to a ship launch application with a Mk. 41 vertical launch system, Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Director Vice Adm. Jon Hill said March 4.
The U.S. Defense Department’s acquisition leadership has set up a “war room” in the Pentagon to assess the industrial base for hypersonic weapons ahead of a planned production ramp-up within a few years.
The U.S. Army will “very soon” demonstrate a ground-launched ballistic missile with a range greater than 500 km, the previous limit set by a now-defunct arms control treaty, Gen. Mike Murray said on March 4.
U.S. defense officials are considering a “broad set” of scramjet-powered, hypersonic cruise missiles as the U.S. Air Force focuses in the near term on preparing a follow-on program to DARPA's Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept.
The U.S. Air Force terminated one of two hypersonic missile prototypes a year before a planned decision point to divert funding for other priorities and preserve funding for the more advanced high-speed missile, the top acquisition official said Feb. 28.
Small Diameter Bombs and Miniature Air-Launched Decoys will demonstrate a new semi-autonomous weapon technology later this year, an Air Force Research Laboratory official says.
Boeing has dusted off a 10-year-old advanced missile concept to show off “tactically relevant” technologies for the Air Warfare Symposium here this week.
The Royal Canadian Air Force has started test flying a Lockheed CP-140 maritime patrol aircraft fitted with a new missile warning system, a satellite antenna radome and other upgrades.
While lawmakers always declare the president’s request dead on arrival on Capitol Hill, this year there was more than the usual dismissal by a rival branch of government.
China is testing an intercontinental-range hypersonic glide vehicle similar to Russian’s deployed Avangard system, U.S. Air Force Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy said in written testimony submitted to Congress.
A multi-target air-to-air weapon and gun-armed close-support missile are among new projects DARPA plans to launch in fiscal 2021. New approaches to communicating in contested environments, attacking signals and countering laser weapons are also on the list.
Securing German funding for Future Combat Air System demonstrators is seen as a “decisive” milestone, but Berlin’s political inertia could affect momentum.
