Morning Coffee 8-17-11

Sukhoi Tu-50 PAK FA fighter jet.

A robust blend of news from Naval Air Station Patuxent River, NAVAIR, the Pentagon and beyond:

• Northrop gets $47 million more to supply the Advanced Hawkeye program.
• Budget cuts force reboot of Army’s unmanned aircraft plans.
• Army and Marines want to keep a human in the loop with armed UAVs.
• New carrier shows China is looking beyond Taiwan.
• Carrier will be under direct control of Chinese Central Command. (subscription required)
• Panetta warns of a hollow force.
• Russian stealth fighter to make air show debut.
• Russians claim fighter is equal to JSF.
• Navy taps General Atomics to draw up specs for carrier-based, unmanned UCLASS program.
• Marines considering AeroVironment Switchblade UAV.