World’s Top 100 Defense Contractors
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The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute released its list of the world’s 100 largest defense contractors, reports DefenseNews. Lockheed Martin leads the list, with Boeing, BAE, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman rounding out the top five. Sales of arms and military services declined for a third consecutive year to $402 billion in 2013, according to new data on international arms production. The spending limits imposed by the Budget Control Act in 2011, along with the withdrawal of military forces from Afghanistan and Iraq, has resulted in a gradual decline in American arms sales.
NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, will launch a giant UAV-hunting blimp over Maryland’s Aberdeen Proving Grounds on Friday, according to Defense One. The system includes a 242-foot balloon that can stay up for a month at a time and a radar to detect, among other potential threats, unmanned aircraft. The danger posed by unmanned UAVs over Washington, DC has been a concern since 9/11.
The 2015 spending bill includes $35 million for the GSA to plan and design a civilian cyber campus somewhere in the Washington, DC area, according to Washington Business Journal. The campus will house federal employees and contractors dedicated to the civilian cyber security mission and will be separate from the military’s US Cyber Command.
A plan to move short-takeoff, vertical-landing F-35B Joint Strike Fighter units rapidly between multiple temporary bases is being considered by the Marine Corps, reports Aviation Week. The plan is designed to protect both the aircraft and Navy amphibious-warfare ships from guided ballistic and cruise missiles.
The $1.1 trillion spending bill, which gives the DoD $554 billion and the VA $160 billion for fiscal 2015, is reviewed by Military Times. The new omnibus spending measure sets a budget for the remainder of fiscal 2015 for all federal agencies except the Department of Homeland Security.
A veterans suicide prevention bill suffered a major setback Monday when retiring Sen. Tom Coburn, (R-Okla.), blocked the measure in the waning hours of the year’s legislative session, reports Military Times. The move likely means the end of the effort for this year, and potentially months of rebuilding work for advocates who championed the bill as a critical step forward in veterans mental health care.
CNN provides video of the Navy’s “Silent Nemo,” 5-foot, 100-pound experimental robot that’s designed to look and swim like a bluefin tuna.
The Navy completed an MQ-8B Fire Scout demonstration aboard Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf last week as part of the Coast Guard’s ongoing efforts to assess the potential for future unmanned air system operations from the 418-foot National Security Cutter class, according to NAVAIR News.
The Army-Navy game, won by Navy for the 13th straight year, garnered the highest TV rating in 15 years, according to Military Times. Viewers who watched the game may have noticed that the Navy dropped its unpopular recruiting slogan, “A global force for good,” reports Navy Times. For now, Navy leadership has decided not to use a slogan.
Lockheed Martin won two large contracts from the Navy last week, reports ZACKS. The larger of the two is a $235.3 million contract to supply electronic and mechanical modules and other related instruments for the MK 41 Vertical Launching System. The second contract, worth $169.3 million, is a modification contract to provide F-35 partners with support services.
