March 28, 2024

Morning Coffee: Triton is Ultimate Search Tool

The Navy has the perfect search tool, the MQ-4C Triton drone, for looking for Malaysian Air Flight 370 but it is not yet operational.

Morning Coffee: Human Toll of Military Layoffs

Job-security concerns may compound pressures already producing record behavioral and physical health issues.

US, European Defense Sales Slide, Russia’s Up

money

Focus is on budgets, as U.S. defense sales slip yet again and Pentagon struggles to rein in spending.

Morning Coffee: Sikorsky’s Future Debated

SH-60B Seahawk

The future of Sikorsky, America’s leading helicopter maker, is being evaluated by its parent company.

VA Tech Wins UAS Test Siting, Could Boost Pax Sites

RQ-21A Drone

Formal collaborative agreements among between Virginia Tech, Rutgers and the University of Maryland System could retain Southern Maryland sites as potential testing arenas for commercializing unmanned aviation systems.

Quarter-Million in Uniform Overseas for the Holidays

Joint Chiefs of Staff Dempsey reminds Americans of the hundreds of thousands of service members and civilians workers who do not take holidays off from the job of keeping us safe.

Google Buys DARPA’s Favorite Robotics Lab

Boston Dynamics became the eighth robotics firm Google has purchased in the past six months. Current military contracts will be honored, say Google execs, but the company doesn’t seek to become a military contractor on its own.

Pentagon Avoids Immediate Cuts

capitol snow

Deal would avert another government shutdown, halve sequestration cuts for the current fiscal year and fund the government through October 2015. Pentagon spending cuts scheduled for January would be avoided while Defense spending is increased by $2 billion over last year.

Space Planes, Spy Planes and Supersonic Planes

Lockheed, Boeing and Northrup have designs for NASA’s supersonic plane in 2025 and DARPA has plans for a space plane even sooner.

Tougher Tests for X-47B; Repriced JSF Could Win S. Korea

UCAS X-47B Cat Launch

Increasingly complicated testing aboard carriers defines 2014 for the X-47B and increasing foreign sales of the JSF could reduce the jets’ costs.